The IDF on Sunday issued 1,000 new draft notices to haredim. It plans to send a total of 7,000 draft orders to ultra-Orthodox men within the next six to eight weeks.
Defense Minister Yisrael Katz did not block the issuing of the orders and has said he would not block the additional 6,000. One of the main reasons Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu recently ousted Katz’s predecessor, Yoav Gallant, was to have an ally who would be more flexible with the haredim on the issue.Last Friday, Katz said he would soon start working with the IDF and haredi leaders to try to reach a consensus.
Katz praised both IDF combat soldiers, who have “fought with courage and given their lives” for Israel, as well as “preserving the world of Torah, which is important for our identity as a nation and state.”Maj.-Gen. Dado Bar Kalifa will be replacing Maj.-Gen. Yaniv Asur in the coming days as head of IDF Manpower Directorate, which is responsible for handling the haredi draft issue.
Low numbers of haredim drafted this summer
This past summer, 3,000 draft notices were sent to haredim, of whom close to 300 enlisted.Due to the low number of haredim who were drafted, the IDF more than doubled the number of notices being sent out in this round of draft notices, hoping to reach higher total numbers of haredim actually joining the army.At the same time, IDF sources made it clear that they viewed the wider issue of haredim joining the IDF as primarily an issue for the government.Out of about 930 arrest orders the IDF has issued for haredim who have refused their draft orders, there has been no noticeable spike in actual arrests.There would not be a wave of arrests, even if there might be a small number from time to time, according to IDF sources familiar with the matter. For the most part, haredim who have refused draft notices would be restricted from international travel, as they could be arrested at the airport, the sources said.Of the nearly 300 of new draftees, 50% are ages 18-20, meaning they are less likely to be married, while 40% are ages 21-23, and 10% are at least 24.One new option for service that the IDF has added for haredim to make it more attractive is serving in technical and logistical capacities at a hardened aircraft shelter at an air force base section where only men will serve.Another new option is the Yoav Track within the Logistics Command, which can mean fulfilling a wide variety of technical and logistics roles throughout the military and not just in the IAFFurthermore, the IDF intends to open a new haredi fighting brigade on December 26. It will be distinct from the Netzah Yehuda Battalion, part of the IDF’s Kfir Brigade, which has been the unit of choice for most haredim to date.It has alienated many in the haredi community because it has a reputation for being more National-Religious than haredi.Additionally, there is a new unit of haredim serving at the Ofer Prison in Binyamin, and that program is expected to grow.A newly appointed lieutenant-colonel with a Chabad background is focused on haredi affairs and is charged with ensuring that new inductees are comfortable and having their needs addressed.The IDF’s progress on drafting haredim has been modest, given that about 65,000 haredim are theoretically eligible to be drafted. Nevertheless, there was an 85% rise in relative terms of haredim joining in the last third of the year.About 900 joined, which if the military keeps pace, would raise the total of new haredi draftees to 2,700 from 1,800 annually.This comes after the IDF started to issue draft notices to all haredim who reach the age of 16 and a half, as is done with the rest of the population, in addition to older haredim, whom the IDF is now trying to retroactively draft.IDF sources said they had hoped to jump to 1,300 for the last third of the year and were still hoping to raise the annual numbers much higher.Despite those optimistic ambitions, other IDF sources acknowledged that only about 10% of haredim in the first round of 3,000 draftees showed up for service, which could signal continued hard times going forward.