Editing Conscientious objector (section)

===Israel===
{{main|Refusal to serve in the IDF}}
All [[Israeli citizenship law|Israeli citizens]] and permanent residents are liable to military service. However, the Ministry of Defense has used its discretion under article 36 of this law to automatically exempt all non-Jewish women and all Arab men, except for the [[Druze in Israel|Druze]], from military service ever since Israel was established. [[Arab citizens of Israel|Israeli Arabs]] may volunteer to perform military service, but very few do so (except among the [[Negev Bedouin|Bedouin population of Israel]]).<ref name="wri-irg.org">{{cite web|url=http://wri-irg.org/co/co-isr-03.htm|title=Conscientious objection to military service in Israel: an unrecognised human right – War Resisters' International|website=wri-irg.org|access-date=12 August 2017|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130121141156/http://wri-irg.org/co/co-isr-03.htm|archive-date=21 January 2013|url-status=dead}}</ref>

In discussing the status of the armed forces shortly after the founding of the State of Israel, representatives of orthodox religious parties argued that [[yeshiva]] students should be exempt from military service. This derives from the Jewish tradition that if a man wants to dedicate his life to religious study, society must allow him to do so. The request of orthodox political parties to "prevent neglect of studying the Torah" was granted by the authorities. But in recent years this exemption practice has become the subject of debate in Israeli society, as the absolute and the relative numbers of the men who received this exemption rose sharply.<ref>From the [[Torato Omanuto]] entry: "from 800 men in 1968 to 41,450 in 2005 compared to 7 million for the entire population of Israel. In percentage terms, 2.4% of the soldiers enlisting to the army in 1974 were benefiting from Torato Omanuto compared to 9.2% in 1999, when it was projected that the number would reach 15% by 2012."</ref> In 2012, the Israeli Supreme Court ruled in the case of ''Ressler et al. v. The Knesset et al.''.<ref name="test">{{cite web|url=http://elyon1.court.gov.il/files/07/980/062/n18/07062980.n18.htm|title=בבית המשפט העליון בשבתו כבית משפט גבוה לצדק|date=February 21, 2012|language=he|access-date=December 31, 2013|archive-url=https://archive.today/20131231174322/http://elyon1.court.gov.il/files/07/980/062/n18/07062980.n18.htm|archive-date=December 31, 2013|url-status=dead}}</ref> that the blanket exemption granted to ultra-Orthodox yeshiva students was ''ultra vires'' the authority of the Minister of Defence, and that it violated Basic Law: Human Dignity and Liberty and was, therefore, unconstitutional.

As for conscientious objection, in 2002, in the case of ''David Zonschein et al. v. Military Advocate General et al.'',<ref name="test"/> the Supreme Court reiterated its position that selective conscientious objection was not permitted, adding that conscientious objection could only be recognized in cases of general objection to military service.

Women can claim exemption from military service on grounds of conscience under arts. 39 (c) and 40 of the Defense Service Law, according to which religious reasons can be grounds for exemption.<ref name="wri-irg.org"/>