From the Liveblog of
Monday, February 9, 2026
Lapid slams Haredi community for financially supporting draft evaders
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"
Responding to a Times of Israel report that the extremist Jerusalem Faction and the Satmar Hasidic faction are paying tens of thousands of shekels to draft dodgers after they are released from prison, Opposition Leader Yair Lapid calls to cut Haredi budgets until they begin serving in the IDF.
Asked about the Jerusalem Faction’s announcement that one evader had received NIS 60,000 ($19,500) from rabbis and activists after being released from 18 days in military prison, Lapid says “we are making it too easy for them when we call them the ‘Jerusalem Faction.’ I saw the celebrations at the Ponevezh Yeshiva surrounding deserters who were released; this goes beyond just the most extreme elements.”
“In the end, you know what’s most infuriating about what you described? It’s coming from Israeli taxpayers’ money. That’s where it’s coming from. It’s the 60 billion shekels that Israeli citizens pay every year to draft dodgers. We need to say: ‘You won’t receive a single cent if you don’t enlist in the IDF’ and then they won’t have the money to give to deserters.”
The Times of Israel Community.