Israel wants to force Orthodox Jews to participate in occupation and genocide

Israel wants to force orthodox Jews to betray their religious beliefs by conscripting them to participate in occupation and genocide, and they're using heavy handed tactics to smash resistance.

Orthodox Jews make up about 13% of the population of Israel and until recently they’ve been been allowed to claim exemption from mandatory conscription into Israel’s military if they study at religious schools (Torato Umanuto) or undertake civilian conscription (Sherut Leumi) instead, but Israel is trying to change that and force religious Jews to participate in occupation and genocide against the Palestinians.

As the Israeli Supreme Court has been debating whether to end the exemption from conscription for Orthodox Jews, Israeli security forces have been brutally repressing protests outside.

Let’s not fall into the trap of generalising about why Orthodox Jews reject conscription.

There are pacifist Orthodox Jews who vehemently object to the occupation and Israeli Apartheid against Palestinians, and there are several staunchly Anti-Zionist Orthodox Jewish groups (Satmar, the Charedi Council, Neturei Karta …), but then there are Orthodox Jewish settlements in the stolen and illegally occupied Palestinian territories too, and Benjamin Netenyahu’s barbaric extreme-right government is propped up by several Orthodox political parties.

It would be as absurd and ridiculous to generalise that all Israeli Orthodox Jews oppose Israeli occupation, Apartheid, and genocide on principle, as it would be to nod along with the obscene racist fiction that all British Jews support such Israeli atrocities.

However it’s absolutely clear that very many Orthodox Jews refuse to participate in Israeli atrocities for religious reasons, and that they should be supported in their efforts to prevent the Israeli state from stripping them of their right to conscientiously object.

If someone feels so strongly that they would rather die than participate in violent occupation, they should have the sympathy of all decent people.

However there is a great deal of resentment in wider Israeli society at this conscription exemption for Orthodox Jews, conveyed by the leaders of the counter-protest in favour of forced conscription who said "The prolonged war in Gaza teaches us the critical need to expand recruitment to all parts of Israeli society".

It’s interesting that the framing isn’t 'why are we committing genocide in Gaza?' but rather 'why are Orthodox Jews given exemption from committing genocide in Gaza?'.

When the Israeli state is brutally repressing Jewish people who say they would rather die than abandon their faith to participate in occupation and genocide, it certainly raises important questions, like what kind of “Jewish state" seeks to force devoutly religious Jews into betraying their religious beliefs?