IDF says it will begin drafting ultra-Orthodox from Sunday; protesters block road
Military says move will further strengthen ‘the people’s army’ during a time of war, weeks after High Court ruled that the state can no longer push off haredi conscription
Emanuel (Mannie) Fabian is The Times of Israel's military correspondent
The Israel Defense Forces announced on Tuesday that it will begin to send out initial draft orders to members of the Haredi community beginning on Sunday, though the government appeared no closer to legislation on the issue following a bombshell High Court ruling last month.
The announcement was followed by a rowdy protest by Haredi extremists, who blocked a major highway.
The draft orders are the first stage in the screening and evaluation process that the army carries out for new recruits, ahead of enlistment in the military in the coming year.
“The orders were issued as part of the IDF’s plan to advance the integration of conscripts from the ultra-Orthodox community into its ranks,” the military said, without specifying how many draft orders would initially be sent out and to which age groups.
The IDF said it aims to recruit members of all segments of society to the military, “by virtue of it being the people’s army and in light of the increased operational needs at this time, in view of the security challenges.”
Defense Minister Yoav Gallant said last week that the draft orders would begin to be sent out to members of the Haredi community next month.
The dispute over the ultra-Orthodox community serving in the military is one of the most contentious in Israel, with decades of governmental and judicial attempts to settle the issue never reaching a stable resolution. The Haredi religious and political leadership fiercely resists and protests any effort to draft mainstream yeshiva students who are actually involved in religious study.
Many ultra-Orthodox Jews believe that military service is incompatible with their way of life, and fear that those who enlist will be secularized. Many 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 attack and the ensuing war, in which more than 680 soldiers have been killed and over 300,000 citizens called up to reserve duty.
Haredi activists who oppose any draft orders in the ultra-Orthodox community regularly stage raucous protests in Jerusalem, Bnei Brak and elsewhere, which snarl up traffic and are forcibly broken up by police.
Following news of the IDF announcement on Tuesday, Haredi extremists staged a protest along Route 4 near Bnei Brak, shutting down the highway during rush hour traffic. Police said they were redirecting traffic to other routes while working to clear the demonstrators from the road.
On Monday evening, two senior IDF officers who were visiting Bnei Brak to discuss establishing a tailored Haredi army brigade were attacked by dozens of ultra-Orthodox rioters who surrounded their car and shouted “murderer” and other epithets at them.
The Brothers in Arms activist group, which opposes exemptions from military service for ultra-Orthodox Jews, has staged protests in some Haredi cities around the country. The government earlier this week voted to back a bill lengthening mandatory service for male IDF soldiers to three years, sparking further ire among those who view the burden of service as unequal.
Last month, the High Court ruled that there was no longer any legal framework allowing the state to refrain from drafting Haredi yeshiva students into military service, and the attorney general ordered the government to immediately begin the process of conscription for 3,000 such men — the number the military has said it is able to process at this preliminary stage.
The current government, which includes the Shas and United Torah Judaism ultra-Orthodox parties, has vowed to pass legislation that would slowly increase Haredi enlistment, but major gaps remain between the desires of the Haredi factions and of many senior Likud lawmakers.
The Knesset Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee is currently working on an ultra-Orthodox enlistment bill that chairman Yuli Edelstein (Likud) has said will advance only if there is “broad agreement.” If passed, the legislation would set the age of exemption from mandatory service for Haredi yeshiva students at 21 and “very slowly” increase the rate of ultra-Orthodox enlistment.
Jeremy Sharon and Sam Sokol contributed to this report.
