Israeli govt gets new 16 May deadline in ultra-Orthodox conscription feud

Israel's Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu secured another reprieve in a long-running Israeli dispute over exemptions of ultra-Orthodox Jews from military service, with the Supreme Court on Thursday deferring the deadline for a new conscription plan to 16 May.

The court, hearing appeals that described the decades-old waiver as discriminatory, had given 31 March as the original deadline.

That was extended to 30 April at the request of the government, which argued it was busy waging the Gaza war, and which last week asked for a further deferral.

Netanyahu's coalition includes two ultra-Orthodox parties that regard the exemptions as key to keeping their constituents in religious seminaries and away from an environment in the military that might test their values.

The latest extension is shorter than that requested by the government, but may still spare Netanyahu a public reckoning over the combustible issue ahead of Israel's day of commemoration for fallen soldiers on 13 May, and so-called 'independence day' on 14 May.

Both national holidays are expected to be especially fraught this year, amid an open-ended war on Gaza and knock-on fighting on other fronts that have exacted the worst Israeli casualties – mostly among teenaged draftees and reservists – in decades.

On 15 May, Palestinians will mark Nakba Day, which commemorates the campaign of mass ethnic cleansing that took place alongside the Israeli state's creation.

The Nakba ("catastrophe" in Arabic) pushed some 750,000 Palestinians from their homes.

The ultra-Orthodox make up 13 percent of Israel's 10 million population, a figure expected to reach 19 percent by 2035 due to their high birth rates.

Economists argue that the conscription waiver keeps some of the community unnecessarily out of the workforce, spelling a growing welfare burden for middle-class taxpayers.

Israel's Palestinian minority, which makes up around a fifth of the population, is also exempted from the draft, under which men and women are generally called up at age 18, with men serving 32 months and women 24 months.

(Reuters)