In a decision expected to send tremors through Benjamin Netanyahu’s ruling coalition, Israel’s Supreme Court has ruled that the government should force ultra-Orthodox students at Talmudic schools into military service, a proposal made last February by its defense minister. Israel and was then characterized by the Israeli press as a “slap” for Netanyahu.

Military service in Israel is compulsory but students of Jewish seminaries have been exempted from the obligation for many decades.

The governing coalition depends for its survival on two ultra-Orthodox parties who believe that exempting members of Israel’s ultra-Orthodox community from the conscription (only voluntary) that applies to the rest of the citizens protects their ultra-conservative beliefs that would be endangered by joining the troops.

Whether or not ultra-Orthodox Jews are required to serve in the military is already a thorny issue for Israeli society and the political class, but it has become more acute as Israel’s young conscripts and older reservists are tested in a months-long, multi-front war, in Gaza and Lebanon.

“At the height of a difficult war, the burden of inequality is now more acute than ever,” the Supreme Court’s unanimous decision reads.

In April, the US announced sanctions on the “Netzah Yehuda” battalion – a controversial Israeli army unit made up of ultra-Orthodox Jews, human rights abusers in the occupied West Bank.