From the Liveblog of
Wednesday, June 11, 2025
IDF tells lawmakers it will increase enforcement against draft dodgers
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 IDF intends to strengthen enforcement against draft dodgers, expanding its activities and speeding up the process by which those who refuse to report when summoned are declared evaders, the head of the IDF Personnel Directorate’s Planning and Personnel Management Division tells lawmakers.
Addressing the Knesset Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee’s Subcommittee for IDF Human Resources, Brig. Gen. Shay Tayeb says that the military “intends to carry out increased enforcement activity,” including expanding arrest operations beyond Ben Gurion International Airport.
The IDF has three main enforcement mechanisms: stopping people at Ben Gurion Airport, random police checks, and dedicated operations against evaders. Tayeb has previously stated that such operations have been limited over the last year and a half as the bulk of the Military Police’s resources are stretched amid the war and holding facilities are in short supply.
A recent Military Police campaign to detain people who ignored enlistment orders reportedly led to the arrest of one ultra-Orthodox draft dodger and 37 other draft dodgers.
According to Tayeb, while detentions outside the airport will increase, they will be limited by the lack of holding facilities. And while new enforcement measures will be more effective, he says, they will “not cover everything” because of the significant size of the target group.
Confirming last week’s announcement by the Attorney General’s Office, Tayeb says that starting in July, the IDF intends to begin sending out 54,000 initial enlistment orders to ultra-Orthodox men.
“We see that in the army they intend to do everything to try to expand the ranks,” says subcommittee chairman Elazar Stern of the Yesh Atid party, himself a former head of the IDF’s manpower directorate.
“It won’t happen tomorrow morning, but it will give hope to those who serve, that in a year or two the State of Israel will begin to see many more people carrying the burden.”
Although the orders will be issued in July, the dates on which those receiving the orders must present themselves at IDF recruitment offices will be staggered throughout the upcoming conscription year, which starts on July 1, the Attorney General’s Office has said.
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