Top Haredi rabbi vows no yeshiva student will be drafted to IDF

The spiritual leader of Degel HaTorah, one of the two factions of the ultra-Orthodox United Torah Judaism party, vowed on Wednesday that no yeshiva student would be drafted into the army, “whether the authorities agree to it or not.”

Rabbi Dov Lando made the remarks as the government continues its efforts to pass a law that would exempt most, though not all, ultra-Orthodox yeshiva students from service.

“Whether the authorities agree to it or not, not a single yeshiva student, not even one, will go to the army,” Landau said during an address he gave at the Me’Or Hatalmid yeshiva in Rehovot.

“The place of Torah scholars is solely within the walls of the yeshivas and kollels,” Lando said. “Let everyone know, whether they understand this or not: This is the fact. It has been so, and it will remain so.”

He said the Torah world is undergoing “terrible persecution,” claiming authorities  are “openly” trying to destroy it.

For the past year, the Haredi leadership has been pushing for the passage of a law that would largely keep its constituency out of the IDF, after the High Court ruled that decades-long blanket exemptions from army duty informally afforded to full-time Haredi yeshiva students were illegal.

The upcoming vote on the 2026 state budget has been dominated by debate over the contentious Haredi draft exemption bill.

On Monday, the government coalition narrowly managed to advance key legislation needed to adopt the budget, after enough ultra-Orthodox members of the ruling bloc agreed to support the bill, which their parties had previously threatened to block over delays in passing the sought-after exemption legislation.

The same day, the spiritual leaders of the ultra-Orthodox Shas party and the allied Degel Hatorah faction called on members of the Military Police to refuse orders to arrest draft-dodging yeshiva students, warning they could face divine retribution and excommunication.

Addressing a Monday gathering in Bnei Brak, Lando said that the arrest of yeshiva draft dodgers “shakes the heart of every Jew.”

He said that anyone complicit in this “terrible crime” should be aware that they could face divine judgment, and that the Haredi community shares in the pain of those who have faced prison time for draft dodging.

“We pray with all our hearts that this evil will pass and dissipate like smoke,” he added.

Still, the Haaretz newspaper on Wednesday cited unnamed sources who said that the Haredi leadership is prepared to back a bill even if it doesn’t provide exemptions for tens of thousands of community members who became draft dodgers over the past two years.

A Degel Hatorah source said it was “clear to us that we will not bring down the law over that clause.”

There have been weekly ultra-Orthodox protests against the drafting of the community’s members, at times involving thousands of demonstrators.