‘Zionists are not Jews’: Haredi extremists harass recruits from their community at IDF centers
Police clash with jeering, road-blocking protesters; IDF chief denounces extremists, says army ‘needs everyone’; Religious Zionism MK appears at base to support Haredi recruit
Haredi demonstrators protested Monday outside two Israel Defense Forces recruitment centers, clashing with police while harassing conscripts to the army’s new ultra-Orthodox brigade.
Hundreds of protesters gathered in Jerusalem early in the morning, as dozens arrived in tandem outside the Tel Hashomer military base in central Israel to block roads and rail against the government’s attempts to draft Haredi yeshiva students.
The protests coincided with the drafting of some 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 the military. The IDF has sent some 10,000 conscription orders to eligible Haredi men in the past year, but only some 2 percent have complied.
Video from Tel Hashomer showed dozens of demonstrators jeering new recruits as they were escorted into the base by Border Police officers.
The scene sparked outrage among several national religious coalition politicians, including Religious Zionism MK Zvi Sukkot, who showed up at the Tel Hashomer base later that afternoon to support the draftees.
Protesters chanted, “Sukkot is like [Yahya] Sinwar!” comparing him to the slain leader of the Hamas terror group, as he stood nonchalantly behind a row of border cops.
תיעוד: המשטרה מנסה לפנות מהכביש מוחים מול בסיס תל השומר ביום גיוס חרדים pic.twitter.com/aoMTcWOJHw
— גלצ (@GLZRadio) April 28, 2025
Interior Minister Moshe Arbel, a member of the ultra-Orthodox Shas party, told Ynet that he strongly condemned the “rascals who acted violently against the Haredi recruits to the IDF today.”
“These ruffians are not adherents of the Torah and do not represent its values,” he said.
In the capital, hundreds of demonstrators surrounded the Jerusalem enlistment center, blocking streets leading to the military installation in the middle of the ultra-Orthodox Romema neighborhood.
They chanted “Zionists are not Jews” and “We will die rather than enlist.” They also sang an anti-Zionist, anti-enlistment song with the lyrics “We don’t believe in the government of infidels” — an anthem of the staunchly anti-Zionist Neturei Karta Haredi sect.
Protesters screamed “Hardak” at one policeman wearing a kippa, a slur referring to ultra-Orthodox Jews who join the army and which sounds similar to the Hebrew words for insect and germ.
One young protester held a sign in English stating that “the very existence of the Zionist state and its impure military is contrary to the Torah.”
Border Police officers dragged and shoved demonstrators who attempted to break their line and approach the enlistment center, and kicked protesters in several instances.
At one point, a border cop had to physically restrain his fellow officer from pushing a demonstrator. Several protesters had torn jackets from clashes with the police and one Haredi man sported a black eye.
IDF Chief: We need everyone to enlist
IDF Chief of Staff Lt. Gen. Eyal Zamir also condemned the disturbances.
“At the start of a week that symbolizes the memory of Israel’s fallen soldiers and the importance of our independence as one united people, I view the actions of a group of extremists with great severity,” Zamir said.
“In the midst of a multifront war, the IDF needs everyone, and we will continue to work toward this goal,” he added.
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.
Knesset Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee chairman Yuli Edelstein (Likud) declared that “many” young Haredim “want to serve in the army” but “face many obstacles — both social and material.”
A controversial enlistment law currently being debated in his committee “will help them overcome the obstacles and help us recruit them to the IDF and expand the entire recruitment base,” Edelstein predicted.
“They need us to help them. They want us to help them — and that is what we shall do. There is no other choice.”
According to the IDF’s Personnel Directorate, only two percent of the 10,000 ultra-Orthodox men sent conscription orders from July 2024 to March 2025 have joined the armed forces.
In total, 1,721 Haredim have joined the army since the beginning of the current recruitment cycle last year.
The High Court of Justice issued a provisional order on Sunday demanding the government explain its failure to issue enough conscription orders to ultra-Orthodox yeshiva students to meet the needs of the IDF, and its failure to enforce the orders it has issued.
The order instructed the government to explain those failures to the court in a written statement by June 24.
Anti-enlistment protesters chant “we will die and not enlist” outside the IDF’s Jerusalem enlistment bureau pic.twitter.com/VZgp9xMwar
— Sam Sokol (@SamuelSokol) April 28, 2025
The order came within the framework of petitions asking the High Court to order the government to abide by the court’s June 2024 ruling that there was no longer a legal framework for issuing blanket military service exemptions to ultra-Orthodox yeshiva students, and that the government must begin drafting them.
However, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s ultra-Orthodox coalition partners are pushing for the passage of legislation enshrining military exemptions for yeshiva students and other members of the Haredi community.
Emanuel Fabian and Times of Israel staff contributed to this report.
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