The Attorney General’s Office directed the Israel Defense Forces to broaden its conscription of chareidi men to encompass full-time yeshiva students, rather than just those who are part of the workforce and not engaged in Torah study.
Earlier in the month, the IDF announced its plans to start conscripting 3,000 chareidi men aged 18-26 following the High Court’s recent ruling that the exemptions previously granted to chareidim were illegal. The first thousand were called up on July 21, and the military is getting ready to draft the next group.
To facilitate this unprecedented draft, the IDF requested employment information on young chareidi men eligible for service from the National Insurance Institute social security agency.
The army indicated that the first groups to be drafted would include men who are employed, attending higher education institutions, or possess driver’s licenses, signaling that they are not fully engaged in yeshiva studies despite having previous exemptions for such study.
In a letter to the IDF, Deputy Attorney General Gil Limon stated, “the military must act immediately to implement the ruling on the recruitment of yeshiva students who are required to do military service, in accordance with the needs of the army and its capabilities,” according to a copy obtained by the Kikar Hashabbat news site.
Limon added, “the High Court determined that at this time, there is no legal infrastructure to prevent the enlistment of chareidi yeshiva students and the state must act to enforce the provisions of the Security Service Law in their case.”
Currently, there are 63,000 chareidi yeshiva students eligible for military service.
The chareidi religious and political leadership is expected to strongly oppose any efforts to draft mainstream yeshiva students. It seems that the military initially aimed to send conscription orders to men not involved in yeshiva study to avoid direct confrontation with the chareidi community.
However, Limon pointed out that this method is legally problematic, and not drafting yeshiva students while conscripting working chareidim “would amount to selective enforcement.”
The Finance Ministry also cautioned that drafting employed chareidim could hinder efforts to integrate them into the labor market.
The Israel Democracy Institute noted that at least 22 percent of chareidi yeshiva students under 26 are illegally employed, violating the terms of their military service exemptions. These exemptions were invalidated by the court’s recent ruling. The Knesset Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee is currently debating how to regulate yeshiva students’ participation in academic study and employment under a controversial enlistment bill.
Defense Minister Yoav Gallant addressed the committee earlier this month, stating that the military needs approximately 10,000 new soldiers but can only integrate an additional 3,000 chareidim this year, due to their specific needs. This is in addition to the 1,800 chareidi soldiers drafted annually.
{Matzav.com Israel}