Survey: Public support for conscripting ultra-Orthodox has surged throughout war
With IDF strapped for personnel amid grueling multifront conflict, 84.5% of poll respondents back drafting Haredim, compared to 67% in January 2024

Public support for doing away with sweeping army exemptions for military-age ultra-Orthodox men has risen sharply over the past year, according to a survey published Tuesday by the Israel Democracy Institute.
Support for drafting eligible Haredim either en masse or incrementally, complete with economic penalties for those who do not comply, stood at 84.5 percent, compared to 67% in January 2024, the survey showed.
Only 9% of the Israeli public supported exempting the ultra-Orthodox from mandatory military service, according to the survey conducted in November based on 756 respondents with a margin of error of 3.56%.
A similar survey conducted by the IDI in January 2024 found that 22% supported the exemptions at the time.
The Israeli public’s opposition to the longstanding exemptions from mandatory military service for some 66,000 military-age, able-bodied Haredi men has grown as the manpower-strapped IDF fights the longest multifront war in Israel’s history.
Asked whether Israel’s conscription policy for Haredim should be changed in light of the growing need for soldiers and the extended service time put in by IDF’s soldiers — both in the standing army and in reserve duty — 81% said it should in November, compared to 65% in January.

Among ultra-Orthodox respondents, 57% said they did not think the increased burden of service on the rest of the population should affect the policy regarding Haredim. Still, 21.5% said it should and a similar percentage said they did not know.
The survey was published as the ultra-Orthodox United Torah Judaism (UTJ) and Shas parties, members of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s governing coalition, push for legislation that broadly maintains widescale exemption from IDF or national service for Haredi males. One of the factions that make up UTJ threatened on Monday to vote against a key budget bill unless the legislation was passed soon, but two of the faction’s three lawmakers ended up staying away rather than voting against the bill, enabling it to pass by the slimmest of margins.
In June, the High Court of Justice ruled unanimously that the government must draft Haredi yeshiva students into the military since there was no longer any legal framework to continue the decadeslong practice of granting them blanket exemptions from army service.
Netanyahu’s governing majority depends on the support of Shas and UTJ and their rebellion could lead to the toppling of the coalition and new elections.
However, among supporters of Netanyahu’s Likud party, there has been a sharp rise in support for conscription of Haredim, from 52% in favor and 41% opposed in January to 74.5% in favor and 17% opposed in November, according to the IDI.
Support for Haredi conscription was also up among voters for Bezalel Smotrich’s Religious Zionism party, another member of Netanyahu’s coalition.
In January, 51% of voters for the Religious Zionism party favored and 27% opposed Haredi conscription, compared to 79% in favor and 14% against in November.
According to the November survey, 20% of Haredi respondents supported conscription, 61% said they supported the status quo and 19% said they did not know what the solution should be.