Despite sending call-up orders to over 24,000 Charedi men since last summer, the IDF has seen only a small fraction – 5% – begin the enlistment process.

In a tense session of the Knesset’s Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee’s Subcommittee for IDF Human Resources, Brig. Gen. Shay Tayeb revealed that just 1,212 Charedi men have begun the initial stages of enlistment, despite thousands receiving formal draft notices. Of the 2,399 who were sent immediate call-up orders, 545 failed to appear by their mandatory reporting date.

Military protocol deems any individual who ignores three draft notices a “draft evader,” triggering an automatic arrest warrant. While such warrants are rarely enforced, the individual becomes subject to a tzav 12 — a legal status barring them from leaving the country and exposing them to arrest at any police encounter. Already, 964 Charedim from the first wave of draft notices have been declared draft evaders, and 1,366 have warrants issued against them.

Tayeb noted that among those receiving notices, about half were under the age of 20, 40% were aged 20 to 23, and the remaining 10% were over 23. So far, 411 men have been delayed at Ben Gurion Airport due to enlistment status issues, with 43 physically barred from leaving the country.

“The security situation requires very significant manpower,” Tayeb told the committee. “We are carrying out enforcement actions… there was a policy of increasing punishment.”

Still, committee members accused the military of stalling on enforcement. “The army is dragging its feet to the point where it does not want to recruit Charedim,” charged former IDF deputy chief of staff Dan Harel. MK Elazar Stern, a former IDF manpower chief and now committee chair, added, “There is no progress on the issue of recruiting Charedim.”

The IDF recently launched a Military Police operation aimed at locating and detaining individuals who ignored draft orders, though no Charedi arrests were made. That operation provoked outrage among Prime Minister Netanyahu’s Charedi coalition partners, who have warned that continued pressure on the yeshiva world could topple the government.

Tayeb maintained that the IDF is constrained by limited resources and competing wartime priorities, but acknowledged the need for more targeted sanctions if the state is serious about Charedi conscription. “The sanctions that exist today are very sparse,” he said. “If the state is willing, it can deny certain government services to those who do not serve.”

(YWN World Headquarters – NYC)