Shas rabbis tell yeshiva students to ignore draft orders

The Shas Council of Torah Sages, the spiritual leaders of the ultra-Orthodox party, instruct followers to ignore Israel Defense Forces’ initial draft orders to members of the Haredi community.

The IDF announced yesterday that it will begin to send out the orders on Sunday, though the government appeared no closer to legislation on the issue following a bombshell High Court ruling last month.

“As of now, while no legislation has been agreed on the status of the yeshiva students, do not answer any draft orders including initial orders and you should not show up at draft centers,” the council writes.

The initial draft orders are the first stage in the screening and evaluation process that the army carries out for new recruits, ahead of enlistment in the military in the coming year.

The dispute over the ultra-Orthodox community serving in the military is one of the most contentious in Israel, with decades of governmental and judicial attempts to settle the issue never reaching a stable resolution. The Haredi religious and political leadership fiercely resists and protests any effort to draft mainstream yeshiva students who are actually involved in religious study.

Last month, the High Court ruled that there was no longer any legal framework allowing the state to refrain from drafting Haredi yeshiva students into military service, and the attorney general ordered the government to immediately begin the process of conscription for 3,000 such men — the number the military has said it is able to process at this preliminary stage.