‘Bring them to justice’: MKs demand legal action against anti-IDF Haredi protesters
Yisrael Beytenu’s Forer demands AG enforce law against inciting evasion. Finance Minister Smotrich calls on law enforcement to ‘seize the rioters and bring them to justice’
Sam Sokol is the Times of Israel's political correspondent. He was previously a reporter for the Jerusalem Post, Jewish Telegraphic Agency and Haaretz. He is the author of "Putin’s Hybrid War and the Jews"
The hawkish opposition Yisrael Beytenu party on Monday demanded that the Attorney General’s Office prosecute Israelis engaged in “inciting” against draft evasion, after extremist demonstrators attempted to physically prevent ultra-Orthodox recruits from entering the IDF’s induction center at the Tel Hashomer military base.
In a letter, MK Oded Forer urged Attorney General Gali Baharav-Miara to act “without delay” to “bring to justice the rioters who are inciting evasion of IDF service.”
The law against inciting others to ignore enlistment orders is “clear and unequivocal” and such violent demonstrations “directly and substantially harm the security of the country, the strength of Israeli society, and the fundamental value of the equality of the burden,” he argued, adding that failing to prosecute in such cases sends “a dangerous message of leniency toward perpetrators” and “actually encourages draft dodgers.”
Under Israeli law, someone inciting others to evade service during wartime is liable for a prison term of 15 years.
Protesters blocked both Tel Hashomer and the Jerusalem draft office, where they clashed with police and chanted “Zionists are not Jews” and various anti-enlistment slogans.
Video from Tel Hashomer showed dozens of demonstrators jeering at new recruits, as they were escorted into the base by Border Police officers.
מרתיח שוב נחצה קו אדום בוהק
ואיפה @IL_police
מתגייס חרדי מותקף ע"י ערב רב שמפגין
נגד גיוס לצה"ל בתל השומר
אבל הפעם גם מחזיר לתוקפיו
יישר כוח pic.twitter.com/fDpoSAFbzf— לירן ברוך ????????????????Liran baruch (@BaruchLiran) April 28, 2025
Monday’s protests coincided with the drafting of 70 conscripts into the army’s new Haredi brigade, known as the Hasmonean Brigade, alongside 110 older recruits to a reserve company in the brigade, according to Hebrew reports.
While he did not explicitly mention the issue of incitement, Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich likewise called for the further action on the issue, tweeting that “law enforcement authorities must seize the rioters and bring them to justice.”
Forer’s appeal to the attorney general came only weeks after Yisrael Beytenu Chairman Avigdor Liberman called on police to enforce laws on inciting evasion against senior leaders in the Haredi community.
Citing the same law as Forer, Liberman called on law enforcement “to act in accordance with the law, and not to evade its enforcement.”
Liberman’s accusations were directed against, among others, Rabbi Dov Lando, 94, the chairman of the Degel HaTorah party’s ruling Council of Torah Sages, who has publicly instructed yeshiva students to ignore IDF conscription orders.
According to Lando, yeshiva students are forbidden from speaking with military representatives. Those who have been declared draft dodgers and are liable for arrest must avoid any contact with the authorities, and those looking to travel abroad must first clarify their status with the Vaad HaYeshivot (Yeshiva Committee) — the Haredi community’s primary vehicle for coordination between ultra-Orthodox yeshivas and the Defense Ministry in matters of service deferments.
A recent Times of Israel investigation found that the committee, on whose board Lando sits, has been advising yeshiva students who contact its advice line to “not report under any circumstances and not cooperate” with the authorities.
The Vaad HaYeshivot is part of a wider ecosystem of groups (including one linked to Jerusalem Affairs Minister Meir Porush) running hotlines counseling callers on how to respond to enlistment orders. The Israel Police and the attorney general appear to have failed to crack down on such groups, despite multiple demands for investigation by advocacy groups and lawmakers following the issue.
Many ultra-Orthodox Jews believe that military service is incompatible with their way of life, and fear that those who enlist will be secularized.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s ultra-Orthodox coalition partners have been pushing for the passage of legislation enshrining military exemptions for yeshiva students and other members of the Haredi community, after the High Court ruled in June last year that the dispensations, in place for decades, were illegal since they were not based in law.
In addition, the army has stated that it is facing a manpower shortage and currently needs some 12,000 new soldiers — 7,000 of whom would be combat troops.
Currently, approximately 70,000 Haredi men between the ages of 18 and 24 are eligible for military service and have not enlisted.
Addressing the Knesset last week, Lt. Col. Avigdor Dickstein, head of the Haredi branch of the IDF’s Personnel Directorate, indicated that despite the army aiming to recruit 4,800 Haredi men during the 2024-2025 draft cycle, only 1,721 have enlisted thus far.
Out of 18,915 Haredi men issued conscription orders during the current enlistment cycle, only 232 have joined the army, 57 of them in combat roles, Dickstein told lawmakers.
“In a reality where the government encourages evasion, it is no wonder we have reached a situation where extremists attack those who choose to serve,” National Unity party chairman Benny Gantz tweeted, following Monday’s demonstration.
The Times of Israel Community.