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A gathering crisis over drafting Haredi men into the military is threatening to undermine the administration and dividing the nation.

The public mood on the issue has undergone a sea change in Israel after two years of hostilities, and this is now possibly the most divisive political issue facing Benjamin Netanyahu.

The Legal Battle

Lawmakers are now debating a piece of legislation to terminate the deferment granted to Haredi students enrolled in yeshiva learning, established when the the nation was founded in 1948.

This arrangement was struck down by Israel's High Court of Justice two decades ago. Stopgap solutions to continue it were finally concluded by the bench last year, pressuring the administration to start enlisting the community.

Roughly 24,000 call-up papers were delivered last year, but merely about 1,200 Haredi conscripts enlisted, according to military testimony presented to lawmakers.

Friction Spill Onto the Streets

Friction is spilling onto the streets, with parliamentarians now deliberating a new conscription law to require ultra-Orthodox men into military service together with other secular Israelis.

Two Haredi politicians were confronted this month by hardline activists, who are furious with parliament's discussion of the bill.

And last week, a specialized force had to rescue Military Police officers who were attacked by a large crowd of community members as they sought to apprehend a man avoiding service.

These enforcement actions have sparked the creation of a new messaging system dubbed "Emergency Alert" to spread word quickly through Haredi neighborhoods and summon protesters to block enforcement from happening.

"Israel is a Jewish nation," said one protester. "One cannot oppose religious practice in a Jewish state. That is untenable."

A World Separate

Yet the transformations sweeping across Israel have failed to penetrate the walls of the Torah academy in a Haredi stronghold, an ultra-Orthodox city on the outskirts of Tel Aviv.

Inside the classroom, scholars sit in pairs to analyze Jewish law, their brightly coloured notepads standing out against the seats of formal attire and head coverings.

"Arrive late at night, and you will see many of the students are engaged in learning," the head of the seminary, Rabbi Tzemach Mazuz, said. "Through religious study, we protect the troops wherever they are. This is how we contribute."

Haredi Jews maintain that constant study and religious study defend Israel's soldiers, and are as vital to its defense as its tanks and air force. That belief was acknowledged by previous governments in the past, the rabbi said, but he acknowledged that Israel was changing.

Growing Public Pressure

The Haredi community has more than doubled its proportion of the country's people over the past seven decades, and now represents around one in seven. What began as an exemption for several hundred Torah scholars turned into, by the beginning of the recent conflict, a cohort of tens of thousands of men exempt from the conscription.

Opinion polls indicate support for ending the exemption is growing. A survey in July showed that a large majority of non-Haredi Jews - even a large segment in his own coalition allies - backed penalties for those who declined a draft order, with a solid consensus in approving cutting state subsidies, travel documents, or the franchise.

"It makes me feel there are citizens who are part of this country without giving anything back," one serviceman in Tel Aviv commented.

"In my view, however religious you are, [it] should be an reason not to go and serve your country," said Gabby. "As a citizen by birth, I find it rather absurd that you want to avoid service just to engage in religious study all day."

Views from the Heart of Bnei Brak

Support for ending the exemption is also expressed by observant Jews beyond the Haredi community, like Dorit Barak, who resides close to the yeshiva and points to non-Haredi religious Jews who do enlist in the army while also engaging in religious study.

"I am frustrated that this community don't enlist," she said. "This creates inequality. I also believe in the Torah, but there's a proverb in Hebrew - 'Safra and Saifa' – it means the Torah and the defense together. This is the correct approach, until the days of peace."

Ms Barak maintains a local tribute in Bnei Brak to fallen servicemen, both from all backgrounds, who were lost in conflict. Long columns of faces {