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Thursday, July 24, 2025
Lapid pushes back at Haredi leader’s claim of 100,000 Tel Aviv draft dodgers
Add ToI as a Preferred Source on GoogleSam Sokol is a former political correspondent at The Times of Israel. 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"
Opposition Leader Yair Lapid slams United Torah Judaism chairman Yitzhak Goldknopf after the Haredi politician said that instead of drafting yeshiva students, the army should go after “100,000 draft dodgers in Tel Aviv and Gush Dan.”
“Goldknopf is once again repeating the sickening lie about ‘the draft dodgers from Tel Aviv.’ The draft percentage in Tel Aviv is the same as the national average; in the northern neighborhoods, it is much higher (82 percent),” declares north Tel Avivian Lapid.
He notes that 29 soldiers from Tel Aviv have been killed in the war.
“I invite Goldknopf to come with me on the upcoming Memorial Day to the ceremony to read the names of those who fell in my neighborhood. Maybe he will learn there to be ashamed,” says Lapid.
In an interview with the national-religious Makor Rishon newspaper, Goldknopf declared that Israel’s Haredi population will leave the country en masse if authorities start arresting yeshiva students who refuse to report for military enlistment.
“If there is no choice and the ultra-Orthodox have to leave the country, then they will leave the country. There will be a state without ultra-Orthodoxy. The ultra-Orthodox will not change their way of life because there is an army and a war. There is an army, and there are also those who will go to the army. If you say you are short 50,000 soldiers, take these draft dodgers… There are 100,000 draft dodgers in Tel Aviv and Gush Dan,” he said.
Some 80,000 ultra-Orthodox men aged between 18 and 24 are currently believed to be eligible for IDF service, but have not enlisted. The IDF has said it urgently needs 12,000 recruits, due to the strain on standing and reserve forces in the ongoing war against Hamas in Gaza and other military challenges.
Currently, only around 1,800 Haredim enlist annually. About 2,700 enlisted over the past year, far short of the IDF’s goal of 4,800.
The Times of Israel Community.