Haredi ‘national alert system’ provides warning of IDF operations against draft dodgers
‘The State of Israel wants to destroy the Jewish religion,’ argues hotline chief; disrupting enforcement may constitute ‘obstruction of justice,’ says ex-chief IDF defense counsel
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 Jerusalem Faction, a hardline ultra-Orthodox movement, has established what it calls a “national alert system” to mobilize the community when the Israel Defense Forces engages in enforcement activities against Haredi draft dodgers.
Flyers distributed by the group’s anti-enlistment “Am Kadosh” (Holy Nation) hotline urge members of the public to sign up to receive updates when yeshiva students are arrested for evasion.
“The kidnappers are coming,” the flyers declare in bold red letters, using language which appears to compare detained draft dodgers to Israeli hostages held in Gaza.
Callers to the hotline are greeted with a recorded message that “as soon as the military police arrive to arrest the dear young men who have received draft orders and refuse to enlist in the army of destruction, a telephone flash will be sent to those registered at any time of the day.”
An extremist ultra-Orthodox group numbering some 60,000 members, the Jerusalem Faction is considered among the most conservative of Haredi factions and regularly demonstrates raucously against the enlistment of yeshiva students.
Speaking with The Times of Israel on Wednesday, hotline director Yehuda Bloy argued that recent efforts to conscript previously exempt members of the ultra-Orthodox community constituted an effort by the state to “destroy the Jewish religion.”
Haredi enlistment would secularize the insular religious community and ensure that “there will be no more yeshivas in the Land of Israel,” he said, falsely claiming that 40 percent of the students at national-religious Hesder yeshivas, which combine Torah study with military service, end up losing their religion.
The launch of Am Kadosh’s latest initiative follows last month’s launch of a Military Police campaign to detain people who ignored enlistment orders following the latest round of call-ups. Despite comprising a majority of draft dodgers, no Haredim were arrested during the operation.
Bloy’s hotline is part of a growing ecosystem of ultra-Orthodox organizations aimed at promoting military draft evasion by yeshiva students, which have been criticized for allegedly violating a law barring incitement to evasion.
In a recording of a call to Bloy’s hotline obtained by The Times of Israel earlier this year, the operator could be heard telling a young Haredi man who had received his first call-up notice to crumple it up “like a falafel ball” and “throw it in the trash.”
The new “national alert system” may also run afoul of the law, Tomer Naor, an attorney for the Movement for Quality Government, told The Times of Israel.
“Disobeying a conscription order is a criminal offense which violates the law, and as such, any person who cooperates with thwarting the enforcement actions of the military authorities and the Israel Police is a full partner in the offense and the criminal law also applies to him,” Naor said, calling on the police to “open an investigation immediately.”
If Am Kadosh’s intention “is not only to provide legal advice after an event has occurred, but to give real-time notice of an enforcement action to thwart its execution, this is a problematic action,” agreed Col. (Res.) Ran Cohen Rochverger, the IDF’s former chief military defense counsel.
“An action that is ostensibly intended to disrupt a legal enforcement proceeding may even be considered, in certain circumstances, an offense of obstruction of justice.”
Writing to Attorney General Gali Baharav-Miara on Wednesday, Yesh Atid MK Vladimir Beliak complained that this “phenomenon has been expanding and has not been addressed,” stating that it was “a serious phenomenon that disgraces the IDF and the judicial system.”
Attaching photos of Am Kadosh’s leaflets advertising its “national alert system,” Beliak accused the group of “offering assistance in evading military service.”
“I hope we will receive an appropriate response to the issue from the Attorney General. We will continue to use all tools to ensure compliance with the High Court ruling [ending Haredi draft exemptions] and the Attorney General’s guidelines on the important issue of recruiting yeshiva students,” Beliak told The Times of Israel.
Asked about the lawfulness of his activities, Bloy replied that “everything is legal” and that rather than trying to prevent arrests, the goal of the alert system is to mobilize the Haredi public “to give backup and support to the guy who is being arrested.”
“I didn’t say that they will take some specific action against the police or anything like that,” he continued — insisting that his organization does not attempt to persuade people not to enlist in violation of the law because “everyone who contacts us, everyone who registers” has already convinced by their own rabbis to oppose military service.
Currently, approximately 80,000 Haredi men between the ages of 18 and 24 are eligible for military service and have not enlisted. 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.
Overall, fewer than 2,000 Haredim have enlisted since the beginning of the current enlistment cycle last summer. As of late May, only 1,212, or five percent, of the 24,000 ultra-Orthodox men who have received initial draft notices since July 2024 have begun the enlistment process.
The Times of Israel Community.