Government ministers met on Sunday and discussed applying economic sanctions to draft evaders who failed to report for military service—measures that would be implemented uniformly across all sectors.
The meeting was convened after Attorney General Gali Baharav-Miara claimed last week that the government was violating a Supreme Court order by failing to carry out enforcement efforts against Chareidi “draft dodgers.”
Channel 14 reported that nationwide data presented at the meeting showed roughly 90,000 individuals currently obligated to enlist. This number reflects all those who did not report for their scheduled draft date and includes draft‑age citizens from 18 to 29—the general exemption age—not just the current year’s cohort.
The data indicated that only about 45% of these tens of thousands of draft evaders are from the Chareidi sector.
After the discussion, Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu directed the formation of a ministerial task force, working alongside professional bodies such as the IDF Manpower Directorate and relevant ministries, to determine how the issue should be handled. The team is expected to present its recommendations within 30 days.
Netanyahu said that “steps should be taken [to increase recruitment] within the entire public. It’s not right to target only one sector.”
(YWN Israel Desk—Jerusalem)
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8 Responses
Some simple math – Chareidim constitute about 15% of the population but three times that percentage of those who fail to report to draft. That does say something.
And the law should apply equally to Chareidim and non-Chareidim – period. No specific leniency toward those from either group.
an Israeli Yid
Thank you for telling the Chutz La’aretz peanut gallery what everyone here knows already. Even within those 45% Charedi “evaders”, the vast majority of them were perfectly legal until the Bagatz illegally declared them “evaders”.
IsraeliArab- is the army your God? Do you know why we need an army? Because of Jews Like You that don’t keep the Torah and disrespect rabbis. So maybe you should be the one leading it and never retire because it exists because of you, hopefully the rabbis will agree to pray for a sicko like you that doesn’t deserve it
rebEmes, we can call you rebSheker. more fundamentally, your understanding of events reflects your hareidi lack of education. we need an, army because we are constantly attacked by arab nations. get that through your empty head
Hashem doesn’t send people to attack his people unless there’s a reason for it, אין יסורים בלא עוון. And people like you are the reason the Jewish people keep getting punished. Because there’s an abundance of lack of respect for the Torah and calling rabbi’s terrible names and belittling them, something you’re very good at. If you think this is just a land dispute or political war with Arabs you’re out of your mind. It’s biblical hate. Nobody’s coming to kick the Italians out of Italy but for some reason everyone wants the Jews out of Israel. It’s all orchestrated above as a punishment for the collective sins of the Jewish people, the heavier load which is from you
People keep ignoring the simple fact that on one fine day about a year ago the Bagatz (AGAIN) struck down the latest version of the Yeshiva exemption law, which instantly created 50,000 new ‘criminals’ and ‘draft evaders’. The larger number of Chilonim are REAL ‘draft evaders’.
To the 90% Israeli and 10% Yid: 1. You have once again proven your lack of objectivity in misinterpreting this article: The message is supposed to be; the number of secular draft dodgers is higher than the chareidy ones, but as Netanyahu decried, the persecution concentrates on the chareidim! Have any secular draftdodger been denied boarding at the airport, been taken out of bed while with high temperature or during the shiva of a parent? Have they been denied child-care, driving licence? Is Lapid proposing taking away their voting right?
2. I am pleased that you accept the chareidy population being 15% i.e. over 1m – YOU DON’T IGNORE DEMANDS AND CERTAINLY DON’T PERSECUTE OF SUCH A STRONG MINORITY!
3. Yes, we are proud and have no apology for the high rate of Bochrim and Avreichim refusing to join the Treifa army instead of toiling in the study of the holy Torah.
4. Our Bochrim and Avreichim refusing due to legitimate religious believe – why are the seculars refusing?
Apparently there are new rules in the YWN comments section: if you spew rotten diarrhea out of your mouth (or your keyboard) your user name must include the word “Yid”. Such a strange rule…