This week, in its final few working days before the summer recess, the 25th Knesset passed a Basic Law on Torah Study, which categorized religious study as a fundamental value of the State of Israel. Although not explicitly likening it to army service, which is required by law, the Basic Law sets the stage for future courts to more easily exempt yeshiva students from the IDF. The law was broadly condemned by opposition politicians, and denounced by IDF Chief of Staff Eyal Zamir. A couple of Likud MKs even voted against it. Still, it passed, with 63 votes in favor and 52 against. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu was notably absent from the vote. 

One Haaretz columnist wrote that the law was a “constitutional toy [that] could in future enable a halacha state in the style of Iran or Erdogan’s Turkey” and which establishes a “religious-sectarian supremacy.” Perhaps – in effect, it enshrined an existing religious-sectarian hierarchy into law: ultra-Orthodox men don’t serve, and citizens in Israel are coming under increasing pressure to conform to religious Jewish law, even in the army. 

The Basic Law was seen as particularly pernicious because of its legal and symbolic importance. Despite being quasi-constitutional, however, Basic Laws are no more difficult to pass than regular laws. In most other democracies, changing the constitution requires a........

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