Resurfaced Lando remarks sharpen Israel’s election debate over conscription
Footage first published in 2025 has renewed scrutiny of military-service exemptions and the alliances Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu needs to govern.
Remarks by ultra-Orthodox Rabbi Dov Lando have returned to Israel’s campaign debate, three weeks before the 27 October parliamentary election. The footage, broadcast by Channel 12 this week, dates to a closed meeting and was first published in February 2025.
Lando, a spiritual leader in the Lithuanian ultra-Orthodox community and a leader of Degel HaTorah, questioned whether Jews needed a state and criticised religious Zionist soldiers. He said they were dying because of what their rabbis taught them, according to the report.
The renewed attention comes amid a dispute over conscription. In 2024, Israel’s Supreme Court ruled there was no legal basis for exempting ultra-Orthodox seminary students from military service. Legislation to restore the exemptions has not passed, leaving military service a fault line between ultra-Orthodox leaders who oppose conscription and religious Zionists who serve.
Opposition leaders Naftali Bennett and Gadi Eisenkot criticised Lando and challenged Netanyahu over his reliance on ultra-Orthodox parties. Netanyahu had not commented on the latest circulation of the footage at the time of the report. His ministers from United Torah Judaism resigned from the government last year, though the bloc continued to support the coalition intermittently.
Channel 12 reported that United Torah Judaism would not rule out or oppose a government led by Eisenkot. Whether the dispute will change voting choices remains unclear; an academic adviser quoted by Al Jazeera said the remarks were more likely to reinforce existing views.
