What to do with the Haredim?
The Israel Democracy Institute (IDI) announced in its 2024 Statistical Report that “There was a dramatic increase of 8.5% in the number of yeshiva students in January 2024 relative to January 2023. This is the largest increase we have seen since 2015”.
Over the last decade the number of yeshiva and kollel students has risen by 83%, while the number of Haredim enlisting in the IDF has fallen by 36%.
The IDI continues to forecast that the proportion of Haredim in Israeli society will be 32% by 2065.
Set against that background, Maj. Gen. Dado Bar Kalifa, head of the Israel Defence Forces Personnel Directorate, told the Knesset’s State Control Committee last month that “The (IDF’s) operational need has risen to 12,000 additional soldiers”.
Over the past two years, the IDF has repeatedly called up reservist soldiers for duty. A third of them have served more than 150 days since the start of the war.
Of course, there are some Haredim who do undertake military service, but they represent a small fraction of those who should.
Col. Avigdor Dickstein, head of the Haredi branch in the IDF’s Personnel Directorate, has reported that “out of 18,915 draft orders issued recently, only 232 Haredim responded, while 1,840 ignored the summons. 962 were declared draft dodgers.”
This is an intolerable situation and one that cannot be allowed to continue. Repeated attempts by the government to pass the necessary legislation to force them to serve have met with growing opposition.
Indeed, the Haredim plan to hold a massive demonstration against conscription this coming Thursday. The police estimate that hundreds of thousands of them will take to the streets and that Route 1, the main artery from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem, will be paralyzed for hours, along with many streets in Israel’s capital.
Some Haredim do not recognize the State of Israel and, therefore, see no reason why they should defend it. Others argue that Torah study is a supreme mitzvah that takes precedence over military service and that, in doing so, they help defend the country. Yet others fear that service in the IDF will lead to them becoming less religious. Whatever their reasons may be, the current situation is untenable. So what should be done?
Attempts to arrest draft dodgers have not yielded results. In any event, the numbers are colossal and unmanageable. Meantime, the Knesset has been unsuccessful in drafting legislation that would be acceptable to the ultra-Orthodox parties in the government coalition.
Leader of the Opposition, Yair Lapid MK, announced this week that, if his party were elected to government, he would seek to revoke the voting rights of ultra-Orthodox Israelis who do not enlist in the IDF.
However, others, including Blue and White chairman Benny Gantz, have argued that such a move would be illegal and undemocratic.
One potential way forward might be to block government funding to yeshivot and kollelim providing sanctuary for draft dodgers and remove subsidies to their families. Whether this would achieve the required results is open to question.
Israel is facing one of its greatest challenges, one that threatens its very future, but it is not clear how it can be resolved unless the Haredi parties in government, who enjoy all of the benefits of there being a Jewish State, recognize and accept that they too bear their share of responsibility for its very future.