Nearly 30 draft dodgers said arrested while attempting to fly to Ukraine

Almost 30 draft dodgers were arrested on Monday at Ben Gurion International Airport, according to the Jerusalem Faction, an extremist ultra-Orthodox group vociferously opposed to the enlistment of yeshiva students.

According to the extremist ultra-Orthodox group, which is vociferously opposed to the enlistment of yeshiva students, “nearly 30 ultra-Orthodox evaders have been detained at the airport since this morning on their way to Uman and were arrested by the military police and transferred to [the IDF base at] Tel HaShomer. In the coming hours, they will stand trial or disciplinary proceedings.”

According to the group, eight draft dodgers, most of them belonging to the Breslov Hasidic sect, were arrested Monday morning on their way to the Ukrainian city of Uman for the annual Rosh Hashanah pilgrimage to the grave of Rabbi Nachman of Breslov, joining 10 other pilgrims arrested last week.

In a second update on Monday evening, the Jerusalem Faction raised the number to “nearly 30,” but did not provide an exact count. It said it expected more arrests of evaders attempting to leave the country over the coming days.

As of Monday morning, the number of draft dodgers held in military custody stood at 33.

Every year, tens of thousands of Jewish pilgrims, mainly Hasidim, head to Uman from all around the world to visit the tomb of Rabbi Nachman (1772-1810) for Rosh Hashanah — the Jewish New Year — celebrated this year on September 23-24.

Addressing the Knesset Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee last week, Brig. Gen. Shay Tayeb, head of the IDF Personnel Directorate’s Planning and Personnel Management Division, stated that the military would increase enforcement at the airport ahead of the upcoming holiday.

The ultra-Orthodox Shas and United Torah Judaism parties have lobbied Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and military officials to allow draft-dodging yeshiva students to take part in the annual pilgrimage without fear of arrest.

However, the Attorney General’s Office said that the government has no right to create a mechanism to let ultra-Orthodox draft dodgers leave Israel, writing a letter to the government late last month asserting that it would be illegal to allow draft evaders to leave Israel for Uman.

Some 80,000 ultra-Orthodox men aged between 18 and 24 are currently believed to be eligible for military service, but have not enlisted. The IDF has said it urgently needs 12,000 recruits, due to the strain on standing and reserve forces due to the ongoing war against Hamas in Gaza and other military challenges. Those evading conscription are prohibited from leaving the country.

Since the IDF began its recent crackdown on draft evaders, ultra-Orthodox leaders have declared war against conscription efforts and have held numerous protests, including outside the Beit Lid military prison, where many evaders are being held.

On Monday, UTJ chairman Yitzhak Goldknopf called on Netanyahu to work for the “immediate release” of the more than 30 Haredi men held for evading the draft.

In a letter to the premier, Goldknopf claimed that the draft dodgers were imprisoned “for the ‘crime’ of Torah study” and bemoaned the fact that “in the Jewish state, Torah scholars are being arrested and harassed, as well as their families.”

“The painful facts speak for themselves, and therefore I ask you… to work for their immediate release, and at the very least to allow them to celebrate Rosh Hashanah with their families, to pray in the synagogue where they pray every year,” he wrote.

According to the Jerusalem Faction, one of those arrested Monday was Gamliel Mahadani, the son of the rabbi of the Ethiopian Jewish community in Or Yehuda, who had previously been arrested for evasion six years ago.

Another, whom the Jerusalem Faction identified as Yisrael Meir Taharani, was said to have been arrested only days after his wedding when he went to file a police complaint in an unrelated matter.

The man’s friends gathered outside the prison to mark the end of a traditional week-long post-wedding celebration, a Jerusalem Faction spokesperson told The Times of Israel, sharing video of the party.

Haredim celebrate the sheva brachos of a detained draft dodger outside a military prison last Wednesday. (Video courtesy the Jerusalem Faction.) pic.twitter.com/HPQmKjXb0a

— Sam Sokol (@SamuelSokol) September 15, 2025

In a statement, attorney Menachem Stauber, who represents several of the detained evaders, said that the arrest of yeshiva students marks the “crossing of a red line, harming the ultra-Orthodox way of life and the community’s trust in the system.”

“The state cannot act coercively against an entire population that has always acted in accordance with the legal and constitutional arrangements of ‘Torato Omanuto,'” he said. “These are young men who did not evade military service, but rather lived their lives as yeshiva students, as has been customary for decades in the State of Israel.”

Torato Omanuto (“Torah is his profession”) refers to the system under which ultra-Orthodox men were granted mass exemptions for studying full-time in yeshivas. It was struck down last summer by the High Court of Justice, which said it had no legal basis.

Since the court’s ruling was handed down, both Shas and UTJ have been pushing for the passage of a bill to enable most ultra-Orthodox men to continue to avoid mandatory military service.

‘The IDF needs a large number of troops’

The Knesset Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee is currently debating legislation to regulate the conscription of yeshiva students and has largely started from scratch after the recent replacement of former chairman Yuli Edelstein (Likud).

On Monday morning, the committee held its second discussion in a row focused on proposals to lower the age at which yeshiva students are fully exempted from military service, an approach opposed by the Finance Ministry and opposition lawmakers.

The bill under discussion, as currently formulated, would lower the current age of exemption from mandatory service for Haredi yeshiva students from 26 to 21 and “very slowly” increase the rate of ultra-Orthodox conscription.

“It is agreed by all those sitting at this table that the IDF needs a large number of troops,” Cabinet Secretary Yossi Fuchs told lawmakers, adding that “the scope of recruits from the Haredi public needs to be increased” and that “the main dispute is over the way to achieve this.”

Any eventual law must raise enlistment targets and contain “severe personal sanctions” while retaining 26 as the age of exemption, he continued, insisting that the IDF’s increasing capacity to absorb Haredim into special units allowing them to maintain their lifestyles “is what will enable real growth in the long term.”

Pushing back, Yesh Atid MK Ram Ben Barak argued that to enshrine an exemption age only for Haredim would be discriminatory and should be expanded to the entire population.