The head of the IDF’s Manpower Directorate, Maj. Gen. Dado Bar-Kalifa, appeared on Wednesday morning at a meeting of the Knesset’s State Control Committee and said the current wave of arrests of bnei yeshivos is ineffective, harms the IDF, and is a massive waste of resources.

“We all hear about the radicalization of the Chareidim, and the protests are draining a great deal of our strength,” Bar-Kalifa said. “Enforcement actions are increasing, and we expect a rise in arrests, which will intensify with the departures to Uman.”

He explained that “these arrests bring people into detention centers, and they aren’t drafted because we have loopholes the size of gates in the fence: there are psychiatrists and an army of lawyers who arrange what’s called an exemption. So instead of blocking routes in Gaza, we’re investing all our resources and achieving nothing.”

He added that police resources are also being wasted in enforcing disruptions caused by the arrests. “As part of enforcement efforts, we can be called to a demonstration at a building over chillul kevarim where 20 ‘draft-dodgers’ were arrested, and then we have protests blocking roads. This greatly disturbs the Israel Police, and they know that the 20 people we arrested now will lead to roadblocks for several days. The police asked us to mobilize seven Border Police reserve companies.”

On the penalties for detainees, he said, “Someone who is a prosecution-classified draft evader for over 540 days is tried and detained. His sanction can be incarceration for months. Some have been arrested and jailed for months. When we arrest someone who is not a prosecution-classified evader, he will be tried by a disciplinary officer for up to 20 days. Then he is released, and if he didn’t manage to obtain the exemption while behind bars, he will get it afterwards—with an ‘army of lawyers and an army of psychiatrists’ operating over our heads.”

Bar-Kalifa added that enforcement is only one component of the required response and that individual cases must be addressed. “Whoever chooses to travel to Uman or pass through the Taba Crossing will be arrested. But that’s a drop in the ocean and won’t produce the numbers we want. We need to invest millions in bases adapted for Chareidim and sit down to arrange that people will meet either recruitment, or service, or some contribution, or a convincing sanction. We don’t want arrests. We want soldiers.”

Despite his points, Khalifa added that “we will continue to enforce and coordinate with the authorities.” 

What he failed to say is that despite the infringement on the religious rights of Chareidim, the chaos, waste of resources, and division the arrests are causing, the IDF is forced to continue the enforcement operation due to the order of Attorney-General Gali Baharav-Miara and the Supreme Court, the only real authorities in Israel.

(YWN Israel Desk—Jerusalem)