Protests by Israeli Ultra-Orthodox Jews Against Military Service in Jerusalem

Henry Bodkin reports from Jerusalem, where 200,000 ultra-Orthodox Jews are beseeching God for protection - not from Hamas or Hezbollah, but from the state of Israel.

In particular, from Israel’s “godless” army.

Defined by intensive, almost hourly prayer and the study of scripture, the Haredim have been exempted from mandatory military service since the birth of the Jewish state.

With the army exhausted after two years of war in Gaza and short of approximately 12,000 full-time soldiers in the immediate term, a consensus is hardening that this historical anomaly has to end.

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