3 days ago
IDF to summon over 50,000 ultra-Orthodox Jews in massive push for haredi draft
All 54,000 ultra-Orthodox Jews eligible for military service will be called on to arrive for actual service by July 2026.
Starting on Sunday and continuing through the month of July, the IDF will summon all 54,000 remaining eligible haredim for IDF service in the largest ever coordinated mass pursuit of that sector ever.
These haredim will be called on to arrive for actual service by July 2026.
This comes after 24,000 haredim were already summoned in split-up rounds of the last year, with very small results in actual haredim coming in for their military service, but under pressure by the High Court of Justice and public opinion to broaden the draft against the backdrop of unprecedented numbers of |Israeli soldiers from all sectors being killed, wounded, and performing longer reserve service.
The 54,000 being summoned includes all ages of eligible haredim from 16.5-year-olds to those in their 20s, mostly ending around age 26.
Overall, the IDF's goal for this coming year still remains to integrate 4,800 haredim, a jump of around 3,000 over past years, with a larger jump in integrating haredim each year in future years.
However, no one expects that, without open support from haredi politicians and rabbis, the minuscule haredi positive response to the draft summons to date will radically improve and increase.
The IDF is still demanding that the government pass sanctions that hit individual haredim in order to increase positive responses to draft notices.
Rather, the reason the IDF is moving forward on the summons now is that it has seen that the deal between the government and Knesset Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee Chairman Yuli Edelstein, nailed down three weeks ago, has wallowed and may not lead to a new law to support drafting more haredim before the Knesset recess.
The Knesset recess, which kicks in in the coming weeks, will delay any major progress on the new potential law until mid-October, if not later.
Given this delay, the IDF did not believe it had the legal right to wait (given past orders by the High Court) for such a new law to pass to make its next push for summoning haredim.
In addition, the IDF said that it currently has 250-300 spots in jail ready for arresting draft dodgers, whether haredim or from other communities.
Further, the IDF said that, if necessary, it may widen the number of jail spots to include hundreds more by adding a new company of IDF police to handle the issue.
Such numbers would still be tiny compared to the number of potential draft dodgers, but are still, in relative terms, much larger than the number of draft dodgers who have been arrested in the past.
According to the IDF, it will be strategic in how it arrests draft dodgers.
For example, instead of entering the haredi neighborhood of Mea Shearim in Jerusalem or the center of a Bedouin village, the IDF will use the airport, checkpoints, and other spontaneous checks in areas where draft-dodgers will be traveling and come unwittingly "into the arms" of the army, without the need for searching for them.
In recent months, the IDF and the border authority have arrested around 140 draft dodgers at Ben-Gurion Airport.
Another change is that the IDF will be streamlining the process for moving from the initial summons to the point at which a person is declared a draft dodger and might actually be arrested.
By September, the IDF will be ready to move to actually arrest draft dodgers, whereas in the past, it took several more months or longer to get through the many intermediate points in the process between an initial summons and the point of an actual arrest.
Currently, one-third of 14,000 draft dodgers are near the point where they can be declared detainable, whereas, within a few months, this number could jump to 35,000 and could include a majority being haredim.
The IDF warned that this might mean that some persons who could receive exemptions, such as someone who became injured in the middle of the summons process, may be placed on an arrest list, something which will need to be fixed and resolved in real-time.
However, the IDF said that avoiding these potential problems in the past had delayed progress toward arrests, and reversing the emphasis and approach is necessary to help make enforcement more timely and effective.
Regarding those who are arrested in an operation or spontaneously at some kind of unexpected area where they are checked by the IDF, those who are draft dodgers for 540 days can be sent directly to jail and treated as full violators.
Those who are draft dodgers for less than 540 days may instead be temporarily detained and sent directly to a new IDF unit instead of being sent to jail.
On the more positive side, the IDF said that two companies of haredi units are already serving in combat in the Gaza area, with one of those companies having killed or participated with the Israel Air Force in killing around 41 terrorists.
Regarding an overlapping front of widening the draft base, the IDF said that they recently had an operation where they sought to redraft reservists who had been given early exemptions from further service since they were - pre-October 7 - deemed unnecessary,
In one day, out of 11,000 such persons, around 5,300 came to the Tel Hashomer base and were restored to active reserve duty roles.
Meanwhile, IDF Chief of Staff Lt.-Gen. Eyal Zamir visited the IDF's Hashmonaim Brigade, comprised of haredi soldiers, on Sunday.
During his visit, Zamir addressed the brigade, stating, "Your integration into the army is something you should be proud of, and your families and society should be proud of it as well. You are pioneers and trailblazers, leading the way, and I'm sure you will gain recognition."
"I know some of you may be facing personal challenges, but I am confident, based on my experience, that perseverance is what matters in life," Zamir added.
"Today, the Hashmonaim Brigade is fighting in the Gaza Strip, doing extraordinary work there. I believe this proves that faith prevails. In this regard, I want to say again, thank you, and I have great appreciation for what you are doing. Be proud of yourselves," Zamir concluded.
Avi Ashkenazi contributed to this report.
