An Israeli religious party has left Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s coalition government over conscription.
Netanyahu’s government now has a very slim majority, following six members of the ultra-Orthodox United Torah Judaism party handing in their resignations overnight from posts in parliamentary committees and government ministries, Reuters reported Tuesday.
The party left the coalition over parliament members failing to guarantee future exemption from military conscription for ultra-Orthodox religious students.
Ultra-Orthodox seminary students have long received exemptions from mandatory military service, which many other Israelis who are conscripted see as unfair to them. Leaders of the religious Jewish sect claim that they must have full-time devotion to Scripture, and they are afraid their young men will steer away from religious life if they are drafted into the military.
