Israel fails with ultra-Orthodox draft as only 4 percent show up for service
The Haredi community is threatening to block the passage of Israel's budget if its community is not exempted from military service
Less than 4 percent of the 3,000 Haredi (ultra-Orthodox) Israelis who received recruitment orders since July to join the military have done so, Israeli army radio reported on 28 October.
The head of the Israel Beiteinu party, Avigdor Lieberman, criticized the Haredi community for its failure to participate in Israel's ongoing genocide in Gaza and invasion of Lebanon.
Lieberman criticized the government for failing to enforce conscription orders, stressing that “the army is violating the law” and that Defense Minister Yoav Gallant “must ensure that the law is applied to everyone.”
“The government has extended regular service by four months and reserve service by a year,” Lieberman told Yedioth Ahronoth, adding: “No more quotas, targets and exemptions - one people, one conscription,” stressing that “the whole story of quotas must end.”
Members of the Haredi community who are studying at Jewish religious schools are currently exempt under the law from army service. In practice, the exemption has extended even to Haredi men not actively engaged in religious study.
Israel's ultra-Orthodox argue that by studying the Torah, its young men are doing a greater service to the state of Israel than by fighting.
The Haredi parties in Israel's Knesset threaten to block the passage of regular laws, including the general budget, until the law exempting Haredim from military service is enacted.
The Haredi parties said that no law not related to war would be promoted until the conscription law was enacted and the budget for housing religious students was settled.
The Israeli media reported that Minister of National Security Itamar Ben-Gvir was siding with the Haredi Jews, saying: “Against coercion, for military service.”
In a cabinet meeting on Monday, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich made it clear that the budget must be approved on time.
Smotrich said that national-religious Jews are “paying a price disproportionate to its size in the population” as they fight in the army in Lebanon and Gaza.
“I strongly reject irresponsible statements by coalition officials who threaten to oppose the state budget until the conscription law is approved,” Smotrich added.
Smotrich argued that “Israel is at war and is desperate for soldiers and manpower” and called on his fellow ministers to “take responsibility” and “listen to the cry” of a national-religious community “kneeling under the burden” of military service.
The Haredi leadership, he says, must “act in a real way to help the war effort and recruit many thousands of members of the ultra-Orthodox sector to the IDF and the security forces.”
“The IDF needs you, we need you, the people of Israel need you,” he says.
The Israeli military continues to suffer losses among its troops at the hands of Hezbollah in Lebanon and Hamas in Gaza, despite the devastation caused by Israeli bombing in both war theatres.
Funerals were held on Sunday for five soldiers who died in battle against Hezbollah in southern Lebanon the previous evening, including the rabbi of a Jerusalem high school, as well as two other religious Zionist educators.
Another 14 soldiers were wounded in the battle by Hezbollah fighters.
Twenty-four Israeli soldiers were killed over the past week, including one who on Sunday succumbed to wounds sustained in the Gaza Strip earlier this month.