Starting in 2026, the Israeli government has informed the High Court of Justice, the Israel Defense Forces will be able to enlist an unlimited number of Chareidi men, with no restrictions on the number it can absorb. The state told this to the High Court of Justice on Wednesday.

As of the upcoming 2024 enlistment year, the IDF expects to have room for 4,800 Chareidi recruits, with the capacity rising to approximately 5,700 in 2025. This was shared by Attorney General Gali Baharav-Miara in the state’s official response to several petitions demanding that all eligible Chareidi men, who have largely been exempted from mandatory military service, be conscripted into the army. However, despite the increased capacity, the IDF has not yet reached its recruitment goals for 2024, with Baharav-Miara describing the challenge of increasing Chareidi enlistment as “an extraordinary practical, command and professional challenge.”

The effort to integrate a significant number of Chareidi soldiers into the IDF will require substantial adjustments, including changes to how soldiers are evaluated. Current psychometric tests, which have been deemed unsuitable for Chareidi recruits, are one example of the needed revisions, Baharav-Miara noted. These figures align with those presented by Brig. Gen. Shay Tayeb, who heads the IDF Personnel Directorate’s Planning and Personnel Management Division, during a Knesset State Control Committee hearing on Tuesday.

Looking ahead, Tayeb stated, “there will be tens of thousands of members of the Chareidi community under orders,” also emphasizing the need for harsher penalties for those who avoid enlistment.

In a significant decision last June, the High Court of Justice ruled that Chareidi yeshiva students must be drafted into the IDF, ending the practice of granting them blanket exemptions from military service. Since that ruling, thousands of enlistment orders have been issued, but only a small fraction of the eligible Chareidim have joined the military, with the majority remaining out.

The leadership of the Chareidi community remains staunchly opposed to military service, fearing that it would lead to the secularization of young men. According to the numbers provided by state representatives during Wednesday’s court session and Tuesday’s Knesset hearing, about 3,000 enlistment orders were issued in the first third of the 2024 recruitment year (from July to October). Of those, roughly 400 individuals appeared at the IDF drafting offices, but only about 70 ultimately enlisted. This low enlistment rate prompted frustration from the judges. Justice Noam Sohlberg expressed that he and his colleagues were “outraged that there are 85,000 Chareidi men of military age who are not enlisting,” as reported by the Walla news site. Justice Daphne Barak Erez questioned the state’s plan for recruiting 4,800 Chareidi men “if enforcement measures are only taken half a year after the enlistment order is issued.” Barak Erez also criticized the state’s explanations for the low enlistment rates, stating that these “had no connection to reality, no reference to the current reality — we are at war.”

As of November 2024, the IDF had issued 1,126 arrest warrants for those who failed to report to the recruitment centers.

The hearing was momentarily interrupted when Tamar Levy, a member of the advocacy group Mothers on the Frontlines, rushed forward and shouted that secular Israelis “are not the donkey of the Chareidim,” suggesting that the Chareidi community is burdening other Israelis by relying on them to serve in the military while largely avoiding the duty itself, even during wartime.

Reports in Hebrew-language media indicate that Defense Minister Yisroel Katz attempted to delay the release of the state’s response, as the IDF’s stance on the ability to recruit unlimited Chareidi men by 2026 contradicted the government’s position, which is focused on passing controversial legislation about the issue. Katz allegedly requested that the Justice Ministry exclude the military’s assessment from the court filing. Further reports cited an email exchange indicating that senior officials in the Military Advocate General’s office were instructed by Katz to remove the information from the document.

After the state’s response was filed on Wednesday, Katz dismissed the reports, responding on Twitter: “To those who built fantasies and jumped headlong into an empty pool without water – I wish them health and success.” In the wake of these developments, the Movement for Quality Government, a group that had supported the High Court lawsuit, called for an immediate investigation into Katz, accusing him of obstruction of justice and breach of trust. The group asserted that Katz was attempting to hide the fact that the IDF is capable of absorbing all eligible Chareidi men for conscription by 2026, and claimed that his actions could harm the state’s security and reserve soldiers for political reasons. Coalition members, however, have repeatedly argued that the IDF lacks the resources to accommodate the estimated 70,000 Chareidi men currently eligible for military service.

{Matzav.com Israel}