Ultra-Orthodox Israelis Face Mandatory Military Duty

Exemption of 60,000 men to pursue religious studies comes to an end.

Israel's Defence minister Ehud Barak has given Army chiefs one month to draw up a plan to enlist around 60,000 ultra-orthodox young men who were legally exempted from compulsory military service while they pursued religious studies.

But the move, which follows the expiry yesterday of the law providing for the exemptions, seems unlikely to enact the early mass enlistment of the students at yeshivas or religious colleges that many secular Israelis would like to see.