Netanyahu under mounting political pressure after party quits • FRANCE 24 English

Is it the beginning of the end for Israel’s Prime Minister Beyamin Netanyahu? Monday evening, two ultraorththodox parties of the United Torah Judaism movement announced they were quitting his government and his coalition. At the heart of the fracture, mandatory military service. Since 1948, members of the ultraorththodox community have been exempted from enlisting as long as they dedicated themselves full-time to religious studies. an unwritten arrangement which the UTJ has demanded be set in stone via law. However, with Israel’s war on Gaza still raging on, the army needs manpower. In June 2024, the Supreme Court ruled that this decades old practice was no longer valid, and the judicial authorities in the army have recently begun to take action against those who are now considered deserters. They want to recruit us into the army and destroy us. Thank God we welcome the decision of our representatives in the Kassets for they have returned to us. They made the best decision they could have made and I hope the state of Israel fails. There’s no way the two sides will ever meet. They’ve been trying for 80 years and it didn’t work. This is the moment of truth. Zero hour and God help us that it won’t pass without bloodshed. The issue of mandatory military service has long since divided Israeli Jews. ultraorththodox refusal to serve has only widened the rift. Among the political parties representing the religious group are seven deputies from unified Torah Judaism, a key governing partner for the prime minister, which helped him secure a comfortable 68 seat majority out of the 120 available in the Knesset. While UTJ’s departure does not immediately threaten Netanyahu’s rule, Shaz, the other Orthodox party with 11 representatives in parliament, now controls the coalition’s destiny.

One of Israel’s ultra-Orthodox parties, United Torah Judaism, said it was quitting Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s ruling coalition due to a long-running dispute over failure to draft a bill to exempt yeshiva students from military service. Six of the remaining seven members of UTJ wrote letters of resignation. Yitzhak Goldknopf, chairman of UTJ, had resigned a month ago. That would leave Netanyahu with a razor thin majority of 61 seats in the 120 seat Knesset, or parliament.
#Israel #Gaza #UltraOrthodox

🔔 Subscribe to France 24 now: https://f24.my/YTen
🔴 LIVE – Watch FRANCE 24 English 24/7 here: https://f24.my/YTliveEN

🌍 Read the latest International News and Top Stories: https://www.france24.com/en/

Like us on Facebook: https://f24.my/FBen
Follow us on X: https://f24.my/Xen
Bluesky: https://f24.my/BSen and Threads: https://f24.my/THen
Browse the news in pictures on Instagram: https://f24.my/IGen
Discover our TikTok videos: https://f24.my/TKen
Get the latest top stories on Telegram: https://f24.my/TGen

14 comments

  1. For global peace; all peoples of the whole world must immediately know the truth and fulfill their duties. I need urgent help, solidarity and financial aid.

  5. Israeli politics is ridiculous. Another election same politics. Hopefully global politics and regional common sense will prevail

  12. The Ultra Orthodox are always the ones that are calling for the most hard line position that Israel can possibly take on any given subject … including military action.
    Which is an easy stance to take if you are assured of not being the ones that have to fight it.

Comments are closed.