Defense minister aims to begin conscripting 50% of eligible Haredim in seven years
Katz insists legislation can only be advanced in cooperation with ultra-Orthodox leaders, dismisses IDF assessment it can absorb unlimited Haredi recruits starting in 2026
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"

Defense Minister Israel Katz on Tuesday pushed back against the Israel Defense Forces’ assertion that it will soon be able to conscript ultra-Orthodox men without restriction, telling lawmakers that the number of Haredim drafted into the military should be increased gradually year-over-year until it hits 50 percent of the annual eligible Haredi draft cohort in 2032.
Addressing the Knesset Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee, Katz presented what he described as a set of basic principles underlying his vision for ultra-Orthodox enlistment, providing continuing exemptions from military service for large numbers of Haredim.
“I came here today to present principles for a draft that will result in the conscription of tens of thousands of Haredim,” Katz said.
He listed two nonnegotiable criteria that any legislation dealing with the issue would have to meet in order to win his support.
The first is that Haredim would engage in “real and significant service while safeguarding their lifestyle” and the second is the preservation of the “Torah world,” he said, referring to the network of full-time yeshivas that form the backbone of ultra-Orthodox society.
Ahead of Katz’s appearance, dozens of people demonstrated outside the Knesset against efforts to continue to exempt Haredim from military service. Waving Israeli flags and carrying a stretcher, the protesters called for the ultra-Orthodox to “shoulder the burden” of military service along with other citizens.
Katz said that the IDF would seek to enlist 4,800 soldiers this year, 5,700 the following year and an unspecified number each subsequent year, rising to 50 percent of the annual ultra-Orthodox draft cohort in seven years.

Civilian service in organizations such as the Zaka volunteer disaster response group will not count toward these numbers.
Katz proposed financial sanctions on educational institutions, such as yeshivas, as well as on individuals, should the annual enlistment quotas from the community under his conscription plan not be met.
This includes personal sanctions on all those designated for service, including those studying in yeshivas, he told lawmakers, adding that young men will age out of IDF service and no longer require exemption once they reach 26.
“I was convinced during the discussions that there should be sanctions not only on the yeshivas but also on the students, and this is something that has not been the case to date,” he said.
Katz presented few details on how sanctions would work or what mechanisms would be involved in enacting his plan, stating that he preferred to advance basic principles rather than present the committee with a full-fledged draft bill. He said he believed the ideas he proposed could serve as the basis for “a permanent arrangement that will balance the value of the security services, equality, and the value of Torah study.”
Katz also insisted that any legislation regulating ultra-Orthodox enlistment be advanced with the agreement of that community’s leadership.
“Because the Haredim will be a third of Israel’s population, it is important in my opinion to promote legislation that is based on dialogue and agreement, including by Haredi public leaders,” he said.
Katz’s enlistment proposal was met with jeers from opposition lawmakers, some of whom loudly accused him of promoting draft evasion and engaging in politics.
“I didn’t sleep at night this year while my son was in Gaza and Lebanon,” yelled The Democrats MK Efrat Rayten.

“You didn’t speak about the needs of the IDF among your principles,” declared her fellow MK Merav Michaeli.
Conspicuously missing from the hearing was Brig. Gen. Shay Tayeb, head of the IDF Personnel Directorate’s Planning and Personnel Management Division, who last week testified regarding the IDF’s increasing ability to absorb Haredi recruits.
Responding to criticism from lawmakers that his enlistment plan contradicts the IDF’s own estimate that it would have the capacity to absorb Haredi recruits “without any restrictions” starting in 2026, Katz responded that that “the ability to recruit and absorb are two different things.”
“The ability to recruit in practice is related to areas of agreement with the leaders of the Haredi community and the existence of a law that regulates the status of Torah scholars. Without a legal arrangement, the ability to absorb them is only on paper,” Katz argued.
Ultra-Orthodox leaders have characterized efforts to conscript members of their community as an attack on religion and have argued that even those not engaged in full-time Torah study should not enlist.
In a unanimous landmark ruling in June, the High Court of Justice said the government must draft ultra-Orthodox yeshiva students into the military since there was no longer any legal framework to continue the decades-long practice of granting them blanket exemptions from army service.
Since then, thousands of orders have gone out but few Haredim have enlisted, with the overwhelming majority of those eligible for military service remaining out of the army.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, whose governing majority depends on the support of the ultra-Orthodox United Torah Judaism and Shas parties, has been seeking to meet their demand for a bill that broadly maintains their widescale exemption from IDF or other national service.
A bill dealing with the issue of enlistment is currently stuck in the Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee, whose chairman, Likud MK Yuli Edelstein, has said that the needs of the IDF must come first and that the panel would only advance the legislation if lawmakers can reach a “broad consensus” on the matter.

Despite lawmakers’ questions, Katz was unable to provide much further detail regarding his proposal as the hearing was sidetracked by representatives of hostages’ families who screamed at the defense minister, asking why their relatives were not on the list of those to be released from Gaza under a potential deal currently being negotiated.
“They’re engaged in a selection,” called out one family member, referring to the Nazi practice of selecting those who would live or die in concentration camps.
“I’ve been a Likud member my entire life,” shouted Hanna Cohen, whose niece Inbar Haiman was murdered in Hamas captivity in 2023. “I want her [back] for burial in Israel.”
“No Schindler’s list,” she screamed.
Speaking with The Times of Israel after the debate, MK Evgeny Sova (Yisrael Beytenu) said that he did not believe that there is a chance of the committee passing a law in accordance with Katz’s ideas in the near future, while MK Moshe Tur-Paz called the proposal “too little, too late.”
On the coalition side, Likud MK Dan Illouz, who was removed from the committee in November over his opposition to legislation undercutting sanctions on draft dodgers, said that he believed it was too early to judge the minister’s proposal.
“I welcome Minister Katz’s attempt at finding a solution to this serious challenge. There are still many unanswered questions that we’ll have to deal with in committee before we can see if the law will be an effective one I can support,” lllouz stated.