The haredi draft dodging farce to continue until we who pay the price say 'enough!' - JPost

 

by JPost

The threat of revoking the right of haredim to vote might be extreme, but sanctions, budget cuts, and hitting them where it hurts – in the pocketbook – are not.

 

Haredi men attend a protest against the jailing of yeshiva students who failed to comply with IDF draft orders in Mea She'arim, Jerusalem, October 22, 2025.

(photo credit: Chaim Goldberg/Flash90)

 

The issue of drafting haredim (ultra-Orthodox) into the IDF has reached farcical proportions, but it’s a subject that is deadly serious and tearing apart the country.

Various Knesset bills have tried to address the fact that the majority of ultra-Orthodox men aged between 18 and 24, of which there are currently about 80,000, have not been drafted, with the legislation over the years having been presented and delayed, and now gathering dust.

Coalition maneuverings and reliance on the haredi parties for support have given the ultra-Orthodox population clout and influence to shirk its national responsibility. The glaring gap in Israeli society that has caused tension for years became even more fraught and problematic during the two-year Gaza war.

Reserve soldiers from all walks of life served hundreds of days defending the country and fighting Hamas in the south and Hezbollah in the north.

Meanwhile, haredi religious leaders were adamant that yeshiva students be exempted from military service, even as the IDF has said it urgently needs 12,000 recruits due to the strain on standing and reserve forces caused by the Gaza war and other military challenges.

Haredi men attend a protest against the jailing of yeshiva students who failed to comply with IDF draft orders, in Jerusalem, October 22, 2025. (credit: YONATAN SINDEL/FLASH90)

Only 1,200, or 5%, of the 24,000 haredi men who have received initial draft notices since July 2024 have begun the enlistment process, the head of the IDF Personnel Directorate’s Planning and Personnel Management Division told MKs in May, calling the current sanctions available to the military insufficient for mobilizing “significant numbers” of haredim.

On Wednesday, the High Court of Justice will hear petitions pressing the state to explain why numerous eligible yeshiva students have not been issued enforceable enlistment orders and why enforcement against draft evasion has been limited.

The petitioners now say the government must either issue and enforce conscription orders or demonstrate a lawful and transparent basis for limiting conscription.

This comes at the same time that Knesset Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee chairman Boaz Bismuth, who threw out a version of a bill to draft haredim that haredi parties were deeply critical of, is set to present a new version early next week.

The outline of Bismuth’s draft lays out principles under which 50% of the haredi draft cohort will be enlisted within five years, the exemption age will be set at 26, and yeshiva budgets will only be reduced after one year, according to a KAN News report.

Personal sanctions will be introduced gradually, only if draft targets not met, KAN reports

In the outline, personal sanctions on draft dodgers will be introduced gradually over two years, and only if the enlistment targets are not met, the report added.

Regardless of how it differs from or lightens former chairman Yuli Edelstein’s bill, the haredi parties are sure to oppose any moves that will see increased enlistment of full-time yeshiva students.

Yesh Atid leader Yair Lapid warned that in a government without the haredi parties, a law would be passed stating that whoever doesn’t enlist will not be eligible to vote in elections.

That rash proposal, endorsed by Yisrael Beytenu leader Avigdor Liberman, was rightfully criticized by Blue and White leader Benny Gantz, who said, “It’s possible and necessary to impose personal sanctions, revoke economic benefits, and prevent leaving the country. But fighting for democracy isn’t something you do only when it’s politically convenient. Denying the right to vote and be elected – that’s one step too far.”

Thursday’s called-for mass demonstration by haredim points to how detached that segment of the population is from the realities facing Israel today.

It will only create more animosity from the general public, already incensed at the perception that haredim are freeloading, accepting all the benefits of being a citizen without exercising the obligations.

The threat of revoking their right to vote might be extreme, but sanctions, budget cuts, and hitting them where it hurts – in the pocketbook – are not.

They might be the only effective way to force the rabbinical leadership, which is keeping its flock in a previous century, to wake up and understand that today’s reality is different – and that their future is bound with the Jewish state.

It’s unlikely that Bismuth’s bill or the government's continued soft-pedaling toward the haredim will do that. And it’s also unlikely that the government will jeopardize its shaky coalition by expressing principles. So the haredi farce will continue.. until those of us who pay the price will say: Enough!.

JPost

Source: https://www.jpost.com/opinion/article-871978

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