ultra-Orthodox Jews

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu visits the Hatikva Market in Tel Aviv as part of the Likud party’s election campaign, October 22, 2026. (Avshalom Sassoni/Flash90)

50 shades of right: An Israeli election primer

While Netanyahu’s bloc adds more extremists to its ranks, his opponents are impeding their own path to power by refusing to work with Arab parties.

By Ben Reiff October 23, 2026

Israeli police officers chase an ultra-Orthodox man during a police operation in the Haredi neighborhood of Mea Shearim, in Jerusalem, October 5, 2026. (Chaim Goldberg/Flash90)

Days away from Israeli elections, a ‘sour mood’ pervades the Haredi street

As their decades-long alliance with the right frays, ultra-Orthodox parties have left their public facing a draft crisis, rising poverty, and political disillusionment.

By Eli Bitan October 15, 2026

Ultra-Orthodox men being sprayed with a police water cannon during a protest against the imprisonment of yeshiva students who failed to comply with army draft orders, in Jerusalem, June 1, 2026. (Yonatan Sindel/Flash90)

The Haredi draft revolt threatening to bring Israel to a standstill

As the government seeks to enforce military service for all, ultra-Orthodox refusal is revealing cracks in the country’s militaristic consensus.

By Eli Bitan June 23, 2026

Latest

Security and rescue forces are seen at the scene where an ultra-Orthodox teenager was killed and three others were wounded after being hit by a bus during a mass demonstration against the enlistment of ultra-Orthodox Jews to the Israeli army, Jerusalem, January 6, 2026. (Chaim Goldberg/Flash90)

Palestinian bus drivers are on the front lines of Israeli racial violence

From Jerusalem to Haifa, bus drivers and ticket inspectors are facing an unprecedented surge in attacks — be it from ultra-Orthodox youth or soccer hooligans — forcing many to choose between livelihood and safety.

By Charlotte Ritz-Jack January 15, 2026

A Haredi man watches as a fire burns during a protest against mandatory conscription into the Israeli army, Jerusalem, June 30, 2024. (Oren Ziv)

‘We’d rather die than enlist’: Haredi Jews vow to defy conscription

An Israeli High Court ruling has overturned a decades-old military exemption for ultra-Orthodox Jews, leading thousands to rage against the state and their community’s politicians.

By Oren Ziv July 2, 2024

An Israeli soldier walks past a wall of photographs of Israelis still held hostage in Gaza, at "Hostage Square" in Tel Aviv, March 10, 2024. (Miriam Alster/FLASH90)

Netanyahu isn’t the only one interested in prolonging the war

A broad coalition of political forces, from Israel's far right to the Zionist left, have differing motivations for turning the war into the new normal.

By Menachem Klein April 9, 2024

View of graves that were allegedly vandalized by Jewish men, in the Christian cemetery on Mount Zion, in the Old City of Jerusalem, January 4, 2023. (Jamal Awad/Flash90)

‘The escalation is frightening’: Jerusalem Christians fear for their future

The city’s dwindling Christian community is facing a spike in hate crimes under the far-right government, with possible ramifications for Israel’s ties abroad.

By Natan Odenheimer July 14, 2023

Young Orthodox Israelis wave flags during the annual Jerusalem Day Flag March outside Damascus Gate in Jerusalem's Old City, May 15, 2021. (Keren Manor/Activestills)

The radicalizing rebellion of Israel’s Haredi youth

Once staunch anti-Zionists, Haredi parties have become ensconced in the Israeli right. Now, a generation of disenfranchised Haredi youth is defying its elders and seeking meaning in the most extreme forms of supremacism.

By Pnina Pfeuffer October 31, 2022

Israeli police patrol in the ultra-orthodox city of Bnei Brak, March 30, 2020. The government ordered a partial lockdown of the city in order to prevent the spread of the Coronavirus. (Oren Ziv)

‘A failure of communication’: Haredi Jews at the epicenter of Israel’s coronavirus outbreak

Contrary to popular opinion, Israel's ultra-Orthodox community was not trying to flout coronavirus directives. The government, including its Haredi health minister, effectively abandoned it. An interview with journalist Eli Bitan.

By Mairav Zonszein April 5, 2020

Israeli security forces guard as Jews tour the Palestinian side of the old city market in the West Bank city of Hebron, June 15, 2019. (Wisam Hashlamoun/Flash90)

Elections reveal a seismic split within Israel’s right

Once the ascendant elite, the settler movement’s political power is on the decline. By Meron Rapoport While political analysts wonder if we have come to the end of the Netanyahu era, little attention is being paid to another major outcome of this election — that is, the decline of the national religious movement’s political power.…

By +972 Magazine September 19, 2019

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and former Defense Minister Avigdor Lieberman visit the separation wall between Israel and the West Bank near the village of Tarqumiyah, July 20, 2016. (Haim Zach/GPO)

The Israeli right stopped talking about occupation, and that will hurt it at the polls

Netanyahu has joined forces with religious radicals who have stopped talking about Palestinians and are instead pushing a homophobic and sexist agenda. It may just might seal his political doom. By Meron Rapoport It didn’t take long for Prime Minister Netanyahu to use the doomsday weapon against Avigdor Liberman immediately following the last elections. Netanyahu blamed his…

By +972 Magazine August 27, 2019

Mahmoud Katusa, seen after his relese from Israeli prison, in the West Bank city of Ramallah, June 25, 2019. (Yonatan Sindel/Flash90)

Once there’s no Palestinian suspect, the media loses interest

The media played a key role in turning a Palestinian man into the top suspect in a recent child rape case. But ever since charges against him were dropped, the press seems to have lost interest in the case. By Uzi Benziman If you Google the recent rape case of a seven-year-old ultra-Orthodox girl in an ultra-Orthodox settlement in…

By The Seventh Eye July 11, 2019

Mahmoud Katusa, seen after his release from Israeli prison, at the Beitunia crossing, near the West Bank city of Ramallah, June 25, 2019. (Yonatan Sindel/Flash90)

How the media helped turn an innocent Palestinian into a child rapist

Mahmoud Katusa, who was falsely accused of raping a 7-year-old Jewish girl, fell victim to a press and a public atmosphere that views Palestinians as guilty until proven innocent. By Uzi Benziman In order to understand the false allegations against Mahmoud Katusa, a Palestinian man from the West Bank who was wrongfully accused of raping a…

By The Seventh Eye June 25, 2019