In the middle of a six-lane interchange at the main entrance to Jerusalem, 200,000 ultra-Orthodox Jews are beseeching God for protection – not from Hamas or Hezbollah, but from the state of Israel.
In particular, from Israel’s “godless” army.
“My family came here 240 years ago and have studied the Torah ever since,” a young man called Chaim shouts above the din. “Now they want to call me into the army? It’s not happening. I’m going to continue studying Torah. The army can die.”
Someone with a tallit over his head and a book of psalms in one hand raises his arms to the sky, but his anguished prayers are drowned out by the blast of a ram’s horn.
Swarms of protesters have climbed on to the roofs of the nearby petrol stations.
Dozens are stuffed into, and standing precariously on top of, the motorway gantry, their banners obscuring the signs to Tel Aviv.
The heavily armed police have long since given up trying to stop the crowds accessing the famous Chords railway bridge. Coils of razor wire have been swept aside as if by an omnipotent hand.
It’s chaos, which, you get the feeling, is exactly what this loose federation of sects known collectively in Israel as the Haredim is aiming for.
Defined by intensive, almost hourly prayer and the study of scripture, they have been exempted from mandatory military service since the birth of the Jewish state.
This has been accompanied by a range of government subsidies to fund the yeshivas, religious education institutes that are central to Haredi life.
The protests come amid a growing feeling in Israel that military exemptions for ultra-Orthodox Jewish sects should end – Eyal Warshavsky for The Telegraph
In 1948, the community only made up 3 per cent of Israelis. Today, they constitute roughly 14 per cent of the general population and nearly one in five of all Jews in Israel, thanks mainly to their prolific birth rate.
With the army exhausted after two years of war in Gaza and short of approximately 12,000 full-time soldiers in the immediate term, a consensus is hardening that the historical anomaly of exemption has to end.
Moshe Tur-Paz, a member of the opposition Yesh Atid party in the Knesset who sits on the foreign and defence committee, said the military failure of Oct 7, plus the slow progress of the subsequent campaign, shows that Israel needs “tens of battalions more” to meet its security needs.
A paratrooper and one of two Knesset members to have served in the Gaza conflict, albeit in a headquarters role, he said: “There are 100,000 Haredi boys between 18 to 37 who have never served in the army.
“If they served, that would solve all our human resources problems. If even 50 per cent of them serve, that would cover most of our needs.”
Police have given up trying to stop the crowds accessing the Chords railway bridge – Eyal Warshavsky
An opposition Knesset member said ‘100,000 Haredi boys between 18 to 37 have never served in the army’ – Eyal Warshavsky
In June last year, the Supreme Court ruled the exemption to be unlawful.
Technically, ultra-Orthodox men who refuse their mandatory call-up can now be jailed, although in practice this has not yet been widely enforced.
Knesset members are currently wrangling over a new legislative package of sanctions against those who refuse to serve.
However, its authors have been accused of watering down the bill at the behest of Benjamin Netanyahu, who relies on the ultra-Orthodox bloc to stay in power.
The successful passage of this particular bill is uncertain.
It means that, as well as the threat of jail time, financial sanctions plus others such as travel bans and a prohibition on obtaining a driving licence are all up for debate.
The result is that no one is happy: not the generals; not the hundreds of thousands of young Israeli reservists whose lives have been put on hold by multiple traumatic tours of duty; nor the Haredim themselves, who feel persecuted by the threat of being dragged into the IDF.
The Haredim feel persecuted by the threat of being dragged into the IDF – Eyal Warshavsky
Men in ultra-Orthodox sects who refuse their mandatory call-up can now be jailed – Eyal Warshavsky
Contrary to some stereotypes, many are not pacifists.
They simply cannot reconcile their religious way of life with membership of an institution which – despite becoming steadily more religious – is still seen as a symbol of secular Israel, a legacy of the political secularism of the country’s socialist founders.
Michail Fux, 22, said he currently prays or studies the Torah and other sacred texts and laws for nearly eight hours a day.
“Of course we need people in the army, but I’m afraid that if I go in, I will come out secular,” he said.
Routh Rathleen, a middle-aged woman, angrily interjects, explaining that two of her sons had joined an IDF unit specially tailored for ultra-Orthodox recruits, but that they had become less godly the longer they served.
“It was a disaster,” she fumed.
According to IDF figures, 2,940 Haredi men were drafted in 2024, of whom 1,300 entered through dedicated ultra-Orthodox schemes and the rest through general service.
Worried and angry, the Haredi community is unafraid to show its power.
Thursday’s protest, in which a young man died after falling from a building, paralysed Israel’s capital, shutting down the highway to Tel Aviv and forcing the city’s main railway and bus stations to close.
Protesters are angry and unafraid to confront law enforcement – Eyal Warshavsky
The fact is, while many demonstrators expressed polite admiration for the men and women who serve in the IDF, they believe that they are protecting the Jewish people every bit as much through prayer.
Some say it more explicitly than others, but the underlying theme is that if more people pleased God by living as the ultra-Orthodox do, Israel would not require an army because they would not have enemies.
“It’s the Torah that has the power to protect,” said Mr Fux.
Shlomo Cohen, originally from South Africa, made a similar point. “God looks after us; prayer protects us,” he said. “If you have a religious identity you don’t have to worry about Hamas.”
The sense of resentment among the ultra-Orthodox at the prospect of mandatory service derives, in part, from a feeling that they live lives of profound sacrifice on behalf of the wider Jewish people, keeping the flame of what they see as authentic Judaism alive.
The Haredi community feel that they live lives of profound sacrifice on behalf of the wider Jewish people – Eyal Warshavsky
Many are extremely poor, thanks to the large amount of economically inactive time they spend studying scripture, coupled with the number of children they have.
The live birth rate was 6.4 per Haredi woman in 2020-22, according to the Israel Democracy Institute, compared to 2.5 among Jewish women in Israel more broadly.
Therein lies the Haredi dilemma.
The ultra-Orthodox community has increased its political power thanks to the growth of its voter base.
Mr Netanyahu currently relies on it for 18 Knesset seats in his 67-member coalition majority. In parliamentary terms, they are unignorable while Israel continues its steady shift to the Right.
But as the community grows, it also becomes increasingly unignorable as a source of military manpower.
A young man fell from a building and died in Thursday’s protest, paralysing Israel’s capital – Eyal Warshavsky
Secular commentators are framing the conscription issue as a fundamental fork in the road for the Zionist project.
Does Israel move forward on the basis of its founding ideals, as a nation of immigrants bound together by both racial Jewish identity and the democratising shared bond of military service?
Or does one part of society continue to shoulder an increasingly heavy burden for another?
Writing in the Yedioth Ahronoth newspaper this week, veteran journalist Ari Shavit described the situation as “us or them”.
Either the Haredi are absorbed into the military, he argued, or the nation will implode. “Israel will become a benighted third-world country.”
Mr Tur-Paz told The Telegraph that he hoped to see a truly “Zionist” government following future elections – the next of which must take place by the end of October 2026.
“I hope there will be a consensus that you can’t form a government with the ultra-Orthodox if they are not willing to pass legislation [for mandatory conscription] and go into the army.”
Some within the Haredim go against the grain of their community.
They see military service not only as a moral necessity, but as an opportunity to better integrate what has always been quite an isolated community into Israeli society.
Some within the Haredim see military service as a moral necessity and a route to better integration – Eyal Warshavsky
Rabbi Yehoshua Pfeffer is chairman of the Netzach Yehuda Association, which aims to encourage young Haredi men into the IDF, and has helped pioneer tailored units that allows them to continue living as religiously as possible.
“We want to produce the role models that come out on the other side as good religious voices, to demonstrate that it can be done,” he said.
“The fact that Haredi society is becoming so large requires it to take responsibility. You have to pay the price of your success.”
He believes that the most gifted yeshiva students should continue to be exempt, but that threatening the rest with jail is a waste of time.
Economic incentives and disincentives, even quite punitive, are more effective, the rabbi believes.
“The profoundly secular nature of the army has shifted a lot in recent years. It’s a very different place,” he said, adding that ultra-Orthodox Jews are already increasingly exposed to mainstream society through technological and economic change.
“My argument is that if you are going to enter [society] it is better doing it from a position of strength and confidence, rather than just being dragged in.”
