Katz said trying to hide IDF comments that it can draft all eligible Haredim by 2026
Reports say defense minister ordered IDF assessment be removed from state’s response to High Court petitions, as coalition seeks to pass bill exempting ultra-Orthodox from army service
Defense Minister Israel Katz is delaying the filing of the state’s response to High Court petitions on Haredi military enlistment, in order to remove comments made by the IDF regarding its ability to recruit ultra-Orthodox men, Israeli television reported Tuesday.
According to Kan public broadcaster, Katz is trying to omit the IDF’s position that it will be able to draft Haredi males without issue by mid-2026 from the response, as it contradicts the position adopted by the government, which is seeking to pass controversial legislation on the issue.
The government, at the behest of the Haredi Shas and United Torah Judaism parties, is attempting to pass a bill that would see some increased enlistment of ultra-Orthodox men, but would broadly maintain the widescale exemption from military or national service that was struck down in a landmark ruling by the High Court of Justice back in June.
Coalition members have often insisted as a way of justifying the legislation that the IDF is not capable of absorbing the estimated 70,000 Haredi males currently eligible for service. IDF officials have disagreed, however, and reportedly said that by July 2026, there will be “no limits” on the number of Haredi males it can absorb into its ranks.
Kan said Katz nevertheless asked the Justice Ministry several days ago not to include this IDF assessment in the state’s response to High Court petitions calling for all eligible ultra-Orthodox men to be enlisted.
A separate report by Channel 12 news quoted an email exchange in which senior officials in the Military Advocate General said Katz gave an order for the information to be excised from the court filing, which currently states that “there is not expected to be any limit on the ability to enlist members of the Haredi public to the IDF” as of July 2026.
There was no comment from Katz on the TV reports, which prompted Opposition Leader Yair Lapid to accuse him of “harming the security of the country, the soldiers and legal process.”
Also Tuesday, Channel 13 news reported that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s government will not submit a proposed compromise on ultra-Orthodox enlistment to the Knesset Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee this week, despite a promise to his Haredi coalition partners UTJ and Shas to take steps to advance legislation exempting their constituents from military service.
The coalition’s bill on the issue is currently stuck in the Knesset Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee, whose chairman, Likud MK Yuli Edelstein, has said that the needs of the IDF must come first, and that the panel would only advance the legislation if lawmakers can reach a “broad consensus” on the matter.
The issue has been intentionally left off the committee’s agenda, with Edelstein’s spokesman releasing a schedule late last week that did not mention the conscription issue.
During a meeting of the committee last month, Katz, who is reportedly working on a new outline, called for annual recruitment targets within what he termed a reasonable range, playing up the idea that half of eligible draftees could end up serving, while the rest continue studying in yeshivas.
At the same hearing, chairman Yuli Edelstein warned against any attempt to bypass his committee on the issue of ultra-Orthodox enlistment.
“On the matter of the enlistment bill, we strongly hope that, in the end, as I also pledged to the committee members, we will reach a real enlistment bill that will give genuine solutions to the personnel in the IDF, with gradual integration of the Haredi public,” Edelstein said, according to a Knesset readout of the closed session.
As the legislation laggers, the IDF has been working to create the infrastructure necessary to accommodate soldiers observing an ultra-Orthodox lifestyle, announcing Sunday that the first 50 ultra-Orthodox soldiers were drafted for regular service in its new Haredi brigade, known as the Hasmonean Brigade.
