The Haredim have historically been exempt from Israel’s draft, which is compulsory for most citizens, and over the two years of Israel’s war in Gaza, this became the source of considerable political strife. Ever since the most recent provision extending their exemption expired in 2023, the Haredi political parties — which made up nearly one third of Benjamin Netanyahu’s governing right-wing, religious coalition — have pushed to enshrine a new exemption into law, despite widespread opposition. The Haredi parties backed the coalition’s controversial “judicial overhaul,” a sweeping program, unveiled in January 2023, that would strip the country’s judiciary of much of its power and shred Israel’s fragile system of checks and balances. They did so in order to shield any new draft exemption law from judicial review.