In leaked remarks, PM said to tell defense committee that 10,500 Haredim will be drafted to IDF within 2 years

Leaked remarks from a closed meeting of the Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee today quote Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu as saying that 10,500 ultra-Orthodox men would be conscripted into the IDF within the next two years, and that those who refuse to serve would face consequences

“It will be the first time that this has happened. Until now, nobody has succeeded,” he said of the efforts to bring Haredi men into the military. “Ten thousand five hundred within two years is the number that the military is able to absorb.”

“We will also implement heavy sanctions against individuals and institutions,” he is said to have told the committee, referring to both individual draft dodgers and the ultra-Orthodox yeshivas whose students do not serve.

Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee head Yuli Edelstein said last week that after months of deliberations, the committee was set to begin drafting its proposed bill regulating Haredi conscription, almost a year after the High Court of Justice ruled in June 2024 that there was no longer a legal framework for issuing blanket military service exemptions to ultra-Orthodox yeshiva students.

Currently, approximately 80,000 Haredi men between the ages of 18 and 24 are eligible for military service and have not enlisted.

The IDF has sent out 18,915 initial draft orders to members of the Haredi community in several waves since July 2024. As of late April, only 232 of those who received orders have enlisted.