IDF, Yoav Gallant to issue ultra-Orthodox draft order in next month

Defense Minister Yoav Gallant and the IDF have agreed together to issue draft orders to haredim on a massive scale sometime in the next month.

A statement from the Defense Ministry did not give the number of draft orders which would be issued, but the IDF has said it could immediately integrate around 3,000 ultra-Orthodox men, in addition to the around 1,800 it already has.

IDF could immediately integrate 3,000 haredim

The 3,000 is out of a class of around 10,000-12,000 per academic year, with over 60,000 haredim potentially in play from several academic years following the High Court of Justice’s June 25 blockbuster order for a universal draft and the freezing of funds to haredi institutions that do not comply.

Also on Tuesday, IDF Personnel Directorate Commander Maj.-Gen. Yaniv Asor appeared in a classified session of the Knesset Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee, telling the MKs that they would follow recommendations of the Eliezer Shkedi Commission to carry out a positive media campaign tailored to a haredi audience, including promoting special haredi units with conditions preserving their lifestyle.

According to different versions of what he told the committee, he alternately said that: he was not sure exactly how many haredim would be drafted this coming month or that the number would be around 3,000 plus the existing 1,800, and he also may have suggested that the number would remain the same in 2025.

Attorney-General Gali Baharav-Miara’s office had previously said that 3,000 was acceptable for 2024, but that each year after, the number would need to steadily rise.

Some versions of Asor’s presentation indicated that this was unrealistic and that it might take the IDF more years to take in more than 3,000 per year.

However, MK Elazar Stern, who previously held Asor’s job, has said that, as a matter of capacity and logistics, the IDF could absorb a much larger number of haredim and at a fast speed, and that it was just a matter of political will.

The June High Court order, with momentum from the fact that so many IDF soldiers have been killed in the current war, broke open the issue of potentially drafting more haredim after UTJ and Shas had kept the issue out of the public eye for years.

Yet, part of the idea is that haredim require special arrangements, including often service environments with special religious provisions and with fewer interactions with female soldiers.

Meanwhile, the haredi political parties are under pressure to regain their institutions’ funding, but have not shown clear signs of being willing to strike a compromise and push for even a larger partial draft.