IDF claims violent enlistment protests scaring off ultra-Orthodox draftees
Only 48 out of 900 Haredim to receive call-up orders have shown up at induction center as anti-draft rioters aim to deter would-be soldiers
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 low turnout among ultra-Orthodox men mobilized for military service in recent weeks may be due in part to recent violent anti-draft riots, which have frightened away potential recruits, the head of the IDF Personnel Directorate’s Planning and Personnel Management Division told lawmakers on Wednesday.
According to the IDF, only 48 out of 900 Haredi men who received call-up notices last month showed up at the army’s induction center over the past two days for an initial evaluation. The first phase for the recruits includes a series of medical and psychological tests, as well as a meeting with a screening officer.
Testifying before the Knesset Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee, Brig. Gen. Shay Taib said that he had “received an indication that a little over 200 people would show up,” with significant numbers of draftees answering positively when contacted by phone.
“We cannot ignore the fact that great pressure was created within ultra-Orthodox society,” Taib said, recalling how he was cursed by ultra-Orthodox protesters as they clashed with police outside an IDF enlistment conference in Tel Aviv last week.
“Five hundred and fifty ultra-Orthodox candidates for the draft were invited to the conference in preparation for the recruitment, and 250 entered. It is possible that 300 people were invited and chose not to do so because of the raucous demonstrations of the ultra-Orthodox factions outside the conference,” he said.
Taib was one of two senior IDF officers attacked by Haredi rioters in Bnei Brak in July as they exited a meeting with Rabbi David Leybel over the establishment of a Haredi brigade. Last week, another mob attempted to break into Leybel’s apartment — after which he declared that despite the Haredi rabbinic leadership’s opposition to his work, “someone has to take care of the ultra-Orthodox public.”
The violence continued this week as police clashed with ultra-Orthodox demonstrators at the Tel Hashomer military recruitment office, with several female journalists at the scene reporting violence toward them by the rioters on Monday.
On Tuesday, dozens of ultra-Orthodox extremist protesters breached the base. Footage from the scene showed the protesters, reportedly from the extremist Jerusalem Faction, entering the base by forcing a gate open as well as by breaking a section of the barrier fence.
At least nine protesters were arrested, according to the Maariv newspaper, which added that Haredim also threw bottles at police officers.
This July, the IDF announced that it would begin the process of conscription for 3,000 ultra-Orthodox men aged 18-26 in the wake of the previous month’s High Court ruling that service exemptions, which were previously granted to Haredim, were illegal. The first thousand went out on July 21 and the military is preparing to send out its second batch.
According to the army, the first batches to be mobilized include men who have jobs, are enrolled in institutions of higher education, or hold driver’s licenses — indicators that they are not engaged in full-time yeshiva studies despite having received previous exemptions to study.
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This sparked a backlash from the Attorney General’s Office, which said that the IDF must expand its mobilization of ultra-Orthodox men to include full-time yeshiva students, and from senior ultra-Orthodox rabbis, who called on young men not to report to the recruitment office.
According to the Ynet news site, flyers posted in a number of Haredi neighborhoods said the draft was “a terrible Holocaust of young ultra-Orthodox Jews in the Holy Land.”
Many ultra-Orthodox Jews believe that military service is incompatible with their way of life, and fear that those who enlist will be secularized, with anti-enlistment protesters frequently yelling that they “will die and not enlist.”
Israelis who do serve, however, say the decades-long arrangement of mass exemptions unfairly burdens them, a sentiment that has strengthened since the October 7 Hamas attack and the ensuing war, in which hundreds of soldiers have been killed and over 300,000 citizens called up to reserve duty.
The IDF says it made adjustments to the induction center for the Haredi draftees, mostly by only having male soldiers and officers process them.
The IDF also says it conducted psycho-technical tests and interviews that were “adapted to the Haredi community,” instead of the usual tests and interviews.
Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee chairman Yuli Edelstein has been critical of the way in which the IDF has gone about calling up Haredim, having previously stated that “there is no indication of an orderly mechanism or clear criteria as to who is expected to receive the draft orders.”
“Such a move is expected to provoke absolute chaos among the ultra-Orthodox,” Edelstein’s office said in a statement last month.
Aside from discussing the ultra-Orthodox draft, Edelstein’s committee on Wednesday also held a hearing on a government-backed bill lengthening mandatory IDF service, in an attempt to alleviate manpower shortages caused by the ongoing hostilities on the northern border and the war in Gaza.
“I don’t know how to separate the extension of the regular service from the recruits of yeshivas,” Edelstein said. “I don’t see any complexity in this. Our purpose is to expand the recruitment of the IDF in all sectors. We will deal with all the relevant laws to provide all the appropriate tools.”
Emanuel Fabian and Times of Israel staff contributed to this report.
