Netanyahu comes out against arrest of Haredi draft dodgers as 42 detained at airport

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu came out against the arrest of ultra-Orthodox draft dodgers on Tuesday, causing fresh controversy around the hot-button issue ahead of the Knesset election next week.

His remarks coincided with the arrest of 42 ultra-Orthodox, or Haredi, men at Ben Gurion International Airport in an elaborate Military Police operation designed to catch them upon their return to Israel from the United States. Haredi lawmakers jumped on to accuse the bodies involved in the arrests of election interference.

Among those arrested, 27 were released home after expressing willingness to enlist, the IDF said.

The 27 signed an agreement before a judge committing to enlist “and were found fit for military service,” the IDF says. They received suspended jail sentences and were set to soon begin enlistment procedures and start their service.

Another 13 draft dodgers refused to enlist and were “consequently tried and sent to military prison,” the IDF said.

The IDF said two others, “who had been evading military service for an extended period of more than 540 days,” were immediately sent to a military prison upon being detained at the airport.

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The men are members of the Chabad-Lubavitch community who were returning to Israel following a year studying abroad in New York.

The IDF said it “will continue to enforce the Defense Service Law equally and uphold the obligation to serve.”

The men arrested upon their return to Israel on Tuesday had been issued enlistment orders before they departed for the US, the Kan public broadcaster reported, and so were aware that they were at risk of arrest upon their return.

Accordingly, the outlet said they intentionally moved through the airport as a group, hoping this would deter Military Police from arresting them.

Speaking to the Haredi Kol Berama radio station, Netanyahu, who is not religious, said Israel “must preserve the world of Torah because it preserved us.”

“These arrests are a deliberate attempt to harm the process of drafting Haredim without coercion,” continued the premier, before adding that “anyone who does not study” at a yeshiva “should go enlist.”

Netanyahu asserted to Kol Berama that his coalition had been “on the verge of passing a real draft law, and were short by just one vote.” It was unclear what he was referring to, as there is no known case of a single vote preventing the passage of a draft bill.

He claimed the law would instead “be passed in the next term, and it will settle the relationship between Haredim and secular Israelis for generations.”

“It is a law that both preserves the world of Torah, which I respect very much, and ensures the re-sharing of the burden,” the prime minister added.

Netanyahu’s coalition made highly controversial attempts to pass legislation that would enshrine the exemptions of the vast majority of Haredi yeshiva students from military service, an effort that was necessary to appease his ultra-Orthodox coalition partners but was highly unpopular within much of his own base.

That legislation would ostensibly increase military conscription in the Haredi community, but ultimately enable continued exemptions for full-time yeshiva students.

The bill eventually drafted was widely seen as legally iffy and loophole-laden and generated intense resistance even among members of Netanyahu’s coalition. Eventually, the premier informed the Haredim in the spring that he did not have the votes to pass it.

Fruitless efforts to pass a law regulating ultra-Orthodox enlistment have been going on for decades.

Recently, the Haredi parties said they would not join any new coalition following the election before the legislation is fully passed.

Asked about that ultimatum, Netanyahu says: “I wish we could do this. Can we do it before the formation of the government? Who knows? It depends on goodwill, understanding and cooperation. I know that many in the Haredi public understand that there needs to be a new sharing of the burden.”

The issue has remained a major source of political and social tension, as the IDF has repeatedly noted its manpower deficit amid the multifront war, and resentment has grown among Israelis who perform mandatory and reserve service, many of whom have served hundreds of days in the last three years.

The ultra-Orthodox community has historically shunned army service, claiming that military life is at odds with their religious culture and practices. The IDF has created programs to accommodate Haredi soldiers, but many still oppose service, and the community’s leaders seek legislation to continue broad exemptions that have been granted for decades. Haredi protest rallies against the draft and the arrest of draft evaders, which sometimes turn violent, have been routinely held at various locations around the country.

Prior to a 2024 High Court ruling which found there was no legal basis for blanket exemptions for Yeshiva students, the IDF had a standing agreement with the Haredi sect that allowed military-age men to travel abroad for a year of study in New York, provided that before departing, they signed a commitment to enlist at the age of 26.

The agreement, now voided, prevented the blanket exemptions granted to Haredi men from being voided for spending more than 60 consecutive days abroad, as was standard.

Responding to Netanyahu’s radio remarks in a statement on Tuesday, Yashar party leader Gadi Eisenkot — his main rival in the election — vowed not to allow the premier’s plans to go ahead.

“The upcoming elections are between a Netanyahu government of draft evasion and a Zionist enlistment government under my leadership,” he said.

B’Yachad party leader Naftali Bennett also joined the condemnation, charging that the measure would be an “official stamp by the State of Israel on the mass draft evasion of 120,000 healthy Haredi youth.”

A Chabad news site claimed in July that Defense Minister Israel Katz had instructed the military to begin drafting a new plan to preserve the right of Chabad-Lubavitch men to travel to New York for study, but it would appear that this has not yet happened.

Haredi lawmakers say arrests are sign of ‘political interference’

The arrest of ultra-Orthodox draft dodgers often prompts calls for protests from the Haredi sect they belong to, but a Chabad spokesperson said it had no plans to issue any decree, telling Kan: “That is not the Chabad way.”

A brief protest nevertheless erupted in Jerusalem over the arrests, and lawmakers from the Haredi United Torah Judaism and Shas parties accused authorities of election interference.

UTJ leader Yaakov Asher claimed that the detentions were part of a politically motivated campaign to intimidate Haredi voters.

“For some time now, I have been warning about attempts to disrupt the election process” through “unnecessary arrests” intended to “instill fear and terror in the Haredi public and thereby prevent the democratic process of elections,” Asher said.

He demanded that Central Elections Committee chair Justice Noam Sohlberg “intervene in this matter and instruct the police to stop these premeditated arrests at such a sensitive time.”

Asher provided no evidence to substantiate his allegations of political interference.

Similarly, the Shas party accused Attorney General Gali Baharav-Miara of interfering in the election by instructing law enforcement to arrest the draft dodgers.

In a statement, the party accused the attorney general of engaging in “blatant and unprecedented political interference in the election campaign” by ordering “violent arrests of yeshiva students.”

The party also claimed that the arrests violate temporary legislation intended to prevent political interference during the election period.

Earlier this month, Baharav-Miara instructed the IDF to resume arresting draft evaders who have failed to comply with enlistment orders, after the military acknowledged that it had not been actively enforcing those orders against Haredi draft dodgers.

Shas said its faction chairman, MK Yinon Azoulay, was working under the instructions of party leader Aryeh Deri with senior IDF officials to secure the detainees’ immediate release.

Hendel conditions joining government on universal conscription

Meanwhile, Reservists-Economic Party chairman Yoaz Hendel waded into the latest debate around Haredi enlistment on Tuesday, saying his party would only join a government committed to universal military or national service.

“Netanyahu called today for the passage of a draft evasion law as a condition for forming a government,” Hendel said at an event unveiling a plan to increase soldiers’ salaries, expand benefits for reservists, and sanction draft evaders.

“We are calling for universal conscription as a condition for forming a government,” Hendel said.

The party’s proposal includes NIS 6 billion ($1.9 billion) to raise soldiers’ salaries by at least NIS 2,000 ($644) monthly. It ties housing, mortgage, daycare and tax benefits to service, and prioritizes reservists for land, civil service jobs and public tenders. It also provides financial assistance to employers and the self-employed, establishes centralized IDF screening, and expands tailored military service for Haredim and national service for Arab citizens.

Hendel and party co-chairman Yaron Zelekha criticized other party leaders for prioritizing replacing Netanyahu over universal conscription, singling out Eisenkot, People of Israel party chairman Ofer Winter and Bennett over their respective policies.

“If you start handing out exemptions, nobody will be drafted. Are religious Zionist Torah students somehow inferior students [to Haredi ones] in your eyes?” Hendel asked. “Why should one group receive an exemption for a third of the population while the other does not?”

While both Winter and Eisenkot advocate drafting Haredim, Winter has pledged to back only Netanyahu, who depends on Haredi parties opposed to compulsory enlistment, and Yashar proposes one-year military deferments for Torah study for up to 3% of each conscription cohort, potentially amounting to 30% of eligible Haredim.