Defense Minister Israel Katz’s principles for a new haredi (ultra-Orthodox) IDF draft bill do not meet constitutional standards of equality, Deputy Attorney-General Gil Limon said Wednesday at a session of the Knesset Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee (FADC).
Katz presented the principles over two meetings in the FADC, the second of which was held on Monday. According to his principles, the number of haredim serving in the IDF per year would jump to 4,800 in 2025, 5,700 in 2026, and steadily reach 50% eligibility by 2032, the seventh year of the bill’s implementation.
Contrary to reports that the bill is weak on enforcement, it includes financial sanctions against any yeshiva that does not meet its quota and against men who are issued draft orders but do not show up, Katz said.
The personal sanctions cancel preschool subsidies, he said. That stipulation is embroiled in legal disputes and waiting for either the High Court of Justice or the government to resolve, given the court’s February deadline for freezing such funding.
On Tuesday, Katz said he had begun work on formulating a bill together with the Defense Ministry’s legal adviser, but the attorney-general had ordered the legal adviser to cease the cooperation.
Legal exemption expired
The legal adviser complied, as she is professionally subordinate to the attorney-general. Katz said that was the reason he had brought “principles” to the committee and not actual legislation.
Limon said the basis for the discussion was that the legal exemption from IDF service for yeshiva students had expired at the end of June 2023, and the High Court ruled 9-0 in June 2024 that there was no longer a legal basis to avoid drafting them.
The High Court ruling has three components: a general draft duty that applies to all Israeli citizens equally; a legal requirement that the IDF equally enforce draft orders that were sent out; and a prohibition on the government to continue providing subsidies for yeshiva students who were evading draft orders, he said.
Katz’s principles would exempt a majority of haredi yeshiva students while erasing their individual responsibility to report for military service, Limon said. These were “very significant privileges” not awarded to the general public, he said.
Furthermore, the extent of the haredi draft that Katz presented did not meet the IDF’s needs, and the gradual increase in numbers did not meet long-term personnel requirements, Limon said. Katz’s principles did not guarantee a “significant change in the reality on the ground” similar to prior bills that had either failed or were struck down as unconstitutional, he said.
There were procedural flaws in the legislative process, Limon said, adding that he did not believe the Attorney-General’s Office would defend the bill even if its content ultimately met constitutional standards.
Rather than initiate a new legislative process, the government had decided to revive a bill from the Bennett-Lapid government in 2022, which had already passed its first vote in the Knesset plenum, Limon said.
The government went ahead with this decision even though the attorney-general had said the procedure was “not legally viable,” since the 2022 bill was based on a different national security reality, he said.
Maj.-Gen. Dado Bar Kalifa, head of the IDF’s Personnel Directorate, attended the FADC meeting on Tuesday, the first time he had done so since assuming his position in November. He previously served as commander of the IDF’s 36th Division, which took a central part in the fighting in Gaza and Lebanon.
The IDF would act according to law and the directives of the political echelon, but it was investing significant resources to be able to integrate as many haredim as necessary, Bar Kalifa said.
The IDF currently needed about 10,000 soldiers, including 6,000 to 7,000 combat soldiers and the rest for frontline support, such as tank mechanics, he said.
“Much more effective” sanctions were necessary to disincentivize draft evasion, Bar Kalifa said. The “burnout” effect on soldiers and reservists if no haredim would enlist was “clear and well known,” he said.
There was a difference between the immediate need to fill the ranks, which was clear from the “cemeteries and hospitals,” and longer-term personnel needs, Bar Kalifa said, adding that he would not elaborate in an open meeting.
Yonah Jeremy Bob contributed to this report.