IDF to issue 7,000 more draft orders to Haredim after unsuccessful first phase
Military sent out 3,000 orders over the summer, but only 230 ultra-Orthodox men showed up at induction centers; Halevi briefed on status of new Haredi brigade
Emanuel (Mannie) Fabian is The Times of Israel's military correspondent
The Israel Defense Forces will send out another 7,000 draft orders to members of the ultra-Orthodox community next week after the first phase of a plan to draft Haredi soldiers was largely unsuccessful.
Defense Minister Yoav Gallant met with IDF Chief of Staff Lt. Gen. Herzi Halevi and other military officials — including Deputy Chief of Staff Maj. Gen. Amir Baram; the chief of the Personnel Directorate, Maj. Gen. Yaniv Asor; and the Military Advocate General, Maj. Gen. Yifat Tomer-Yerushalmi — and was presented with the summary of the first phase of the Haredi draft plan, his office said.
The IDF had sent out 3,000 draft orders in that stage, over the summer, although just 230 showed up at induction centers.
At the end of the meeting on Monday, Gallant approved the IDF’s recommendation to send out 7,000 more draft orders to ultra-Orthodox men.
The IDF has said it will act in accordance with the law, and that those who ignore multiple draft orders will be prevented from leaving the country and may face arrest by Military Police and be taken to military jails.
Still, there have been no reports of such arrests being carried out so far.
The orders, which constitute the first stage in the screening and evaluation process that the army carries out for recruits ahead of enlistment in the military in the coming year, come after a landmark High Court ruling in June that said there was no longer any legal framework allowing the state to refrain from drafting Haredi yeshiva students into military service.
The attorney general then ordered the government to immediately begin the process of conscription for 3,000 such men.
The military has said that it currently requires some 10,000 new soldiers — mostly combat troops — but can only accommodate the enlistment of an additional 3,000 ultra-Orthodox this year, due to their special needs. This group is in addition to some 1,800 Haredi soldiers who are already drafted annually.
The IDF aims to open new units for Haredi troops, in addition to the existing ones that include the Netzah Yehuda Battalion in the Kfir Brigade, the Tomer Company in the Givati Brigade’s Rotem Battalion, the Hetz Company in the Paratroopers Brigade’s 202nd Battalion, and the Nevatim Airbase’s ground defense unit, as well as numerous other non-combat roles.
In a separate meeting on Monday, Halevi was presented with the status of an in-development brigade for ultra-Orthodox Jews, known as the Hasmonean Brigade.
According to the IDF, so far the military has completed drafting the staff for the first Haredi brigade, as well as establishing infrastructure for the induction of the brigade’s first company next month.
Senior officers, including the chief of the Ground Forces, Maj. Gen. Tamir Yadai, presented Halevi with the status of the ongoing work, the military said.
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 achieving a stable resolution. The Haredi religious and political leadership fiercely resists any effort to draft young men.
Many ultra-Orthodox Jews believe that military service is incompatible with their way of life, and fear that those who enlist will be secularized.
Israelis who do serve, however, say the decades-long arrangement of mass exemptions unfairly burdens them, a sentiment that has intensified since the October 7 onslaught and the ensuing war, in which more than 780 soldiers have been killed and some 300,000 citizens called up to reserve duty.
This past year, 63,000 Haredi males were listed as eligible for military service.
