The IDF must issue draft notices to all eligible men - including those in the ultra-Orthodox (haredi) community - at the start of the nearest draft season, which will be this July, Attorney-General Gali Baharav-Miara said.
The comments were made at a meeting between several senior officials on the matter last week, and its contents were published on Tuesday.
There are around 80,000 eligible draft-age haredim, 24,000 of whom received notices since last summer. Less than 3,000 answered the call.
The Israel-Hamas War has been ongoing since October 2023. Troops, especially reservists, are worn and exhausted by a year-and-a-half of war, and have put their lives on hold and at risk for it. As it stands, the war is not set to conclude anytime soon.
Baharav-Miara emphasized the urgency of increasing the military’s manpower, as set forth by defense officials, and pointed to the High Court of Justice conditional order, which demands that the government explain why these specific draft notices have not gone out, as a “red flag.”
The conditional order issued last month listed several demands, among them for the government to explain why draft-dodgers aren’t being effectively penalized. What this means is that the government must, in its response, offer a broader explanation as to why the court decision from last June – almost a year ago – which ruled that the state can no longer exempt haredim from the IDF, was not followed. The state has until June 24 to respond.
The attorney-general further noted in the meeting last week that she had approached Defense Minister Israel Katz two months ago to advance draft enforcement strategies, as well as to minimize the financial benefits “given to draft dodgers,” but that he has yet to address this issue.
In the June 2024 court ruling, the judges levied heavy criticism against the government, saying that its failure to adhere to its ruling after the existing draft law expired was illegal.
This comes as the IDF said on Tuesday that it began a serious arrest operation against draft dodgers in general, including haredim. The last time this happened was in November and March.
The urgency heightened up a notch during this time, Barahav-Miara said, “due to the extremely low turnout numbers of haredi draftees, along with the deepening inequality that places so much more strain on those who do serve, both in their mandatory service and in reserves.”
In the upcoming draft season, which will begin in July, between 2,500 and 7,000 haredim are set to be called up. So far, said the A-G, 18,900 draft notices have been issued to those eligible, about half (8,900) from the period of March through June. She said, however, that these were issued without the knowledge of whether the recipients are learning in yeshivot (Torah seminaries) or working. The IDF has said that by July, about 5,100 more notices are set to go out.
From the perspective of the haredi community and political leadership, this is a massive jump from what they were hoping would be a much smaller amount of drafts. Such a number – around 60,000 by the termination of the upcoming draft year – cannot differentiate between those who study and those who work.
Hareidi leaders attempt to keep Torah learners from draft
This very distinction is what haredi leaders
have been trying to iron out in discussions on a draft bill in the government, since the law expired last June.
The Tuesday arrests of draft-dodgers have brought the coalition to the brink of collapse. According to reports, senior haredi political figures have warned of an imminent break in the coalition.
“If Torah learners are arrested, we won’t be able to continue in this coalition,” they told Maariv.
Yonah Jeremy Bob contributed to this report.