Only 461 Haredi men reported to IDF recruitment offices of the 3,000 who received draft orders, according to data presented to the Knesset’s Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee on Monday.
Brig.-Gen. Shay Tayeb, head of the IDF’s Planning and Personnel Management Division presented data citing draft orders issued in July 2024.
According to this data, more than 2400 Haredim have arrest warrants issued against them for ignoring draft orders — 1,242 having already had them issued and another 1,212 to receive theirs in the immediate future.
The IDF has not to date actually enforced a statistically significant number of its arrest orders to haredim and has said in the past that it does not have sufficient staff to do so,
Autonomy for Yeshiva students in military service
Head of Har Etzion Yeshiva, Rabbi Yaakov Medan, was critical of Haredi leadership, encouraging additional autonomy from rabbis to their students, particularly for military service.
"Rabbis need to allow their students much more freedom of choice and trust that they can remain Torah-observant even if they serve in the military," Medan said. "Today, there are disputes over who has the final say—the rabbi or the commander. An army cannot function if the commander is not the one making the final decision."
Last month, the military announced that legal action was underway against draft candidates from the haredi community who failed to report for enlistment.
"A draft-eligible candidate who does not report for enlistment as per their draft order will be considered absent without leave and will face criminal sanctions," the IDF stated.
This followed a call for a firm set of guidelines from the High Court on granting draft exemptions to the haredi population, noting that there was not already a legal framework in place. The military warned of legal consequences for those failing to report.
Last month, the compliance rate for haredi summons came out to less than 3%, compared to the 10% of 3,000 summons sent out over the summer.
The military’s goal has been to increase the number of haredi draftees by around 3,000 this year to bring the total number to around 4,800 per year — a stretch from a fraction of those actually taking the draft orders.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu summoned Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee Chairman Yuli Edelstein to meet before allegedly warning him to “fall in line” or risk losing his job, leading Ederstein to push back and emphasize that achieving the goals of the law will require patience.
Shas chairman Arye Deri said in a radio interview last week that should the draft law not be finalized in the coming two months, elections would be triggered after haredi parties left the government as a result.
Eliav Breuer and Yonah Jeremy Bob contributed to this report.