The IDF is preparing to issue more than 50,000 conscription notices to chareidim in the upcoming 2025–2026 draft cycle, set to begin on July 1. This move was outlined in a briefing following an oversight session chaired by Attorney-General Gali Baharav-Miara on Thursday.
The session was part of a continuing series of monthly meetings monitoring the state’s adherence to the High Court’s June 2024 decision, which eliminated the legal exemption previously granted to chareidi men from military service.
To date, the government has distributed draft notices to 24,000 out of the estimated 80,000 eligible chareidim. The remaining eligible individuals—referred to collectively as the “pool”—are expected to receive draft orders during the coming conscription cycle, according to the meeting summary.
In tandem with the ramp-up in draft orders, the IDF is crafting a new strategy aimed at bolstering enforcement mechanisms against those ignoring conscription. The plan includes steps to streamline the enforcement process, making it easier for the military to penalize those who fail to comply.
Baharav-Miara again emphasized that the state had not fully utilized all available legal means that do not require legislative approval to discipline those who defy draft orders.
That same day, former Chief Rabbi Rav Yitzchok Yosef made headlines at a Beit Shemesh event where he sharply criticized MK Yuli Edelstein, chairman of the Knesset Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee and a key figure behind the proposed conscription legislation. Rav Yosef reportedly said that Edelstein “should have remained” in the Soviet Union.
In a recording, Rav Yosef is heard saying, “His [Edelstein’s] soul is an abomination, he was a prisoner of Zion and came to the Land [of Israel], it is too bad he came, he should have remained there. He is causing trouble for yeshiva students… Edelstein and Netanyahu, all this [political] right-wing is a lie. Evil villains!”
Negotiations have been ongoing between Secretary Yossi Fuchs from the Prime Minister’s Office and representatives of Shas in an attempt to hammer out an agreement on the bill’s provisions and avert a potential coalition crisis sparked by threats from chareidi parties to bring down the government if the bill fails to progress.
Though Shas has adopted a publicly firm stance in demanding broad exemptions for chareidim, sources say party leaders have shown greater flexibility in private discussions. Netanyahu is focusing on sealing a deal with Shas, calculating that even if United Torah Judaism (UTJ)—with its seven MKs—leaves the coalition, he would still retain a slim 61–59 majority in the Knesset.
Shas’s Moetzet Chachmei Hatorah is scheduled to meet early next week to determine the party’s official direction. Agudas Yisrael, UTJ’s chassidishe branch, met earlier tonight, as Matzav.com reported, and voted to pull out of the government.
Meanwhile, Rav Moshe Hillel Hirsch said on Wednesday that he was “close” to instructing the party’s lawmakers to exit the coalition and support legislation to dissolve the Knesset.
The Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee’s legal advisors are working on the language of a new draft bill, which is expected to be submitted for review in the coming weeks. However, the limited time remaining in the Knesset’s summer session, which ends in late July, may not be enough to pass the legislation into law. Should the session close without a new law, the existing ruling—which mandates that all eligible chareidim serve—will remain in effect at least through October. If the Knesset dissolves, the legislative process would be halted entirely.
Provisions likely to appear in the draft bill include annual increases in chareidi conscription quotas, eventually requiring that half of each eligible class enlist, along with penalties for those who fail to comply. Although legal exemptions officially ended in June 2024, the overwhelming majority of the 24,000 notices sent since then have been ignored. The IDF has already acknowledged it will fall short of its High Court-mandated goal of drafting 4,800 chareidim in the 2024–2025 year, which ends June 30.
Advocates of the bill claim it will significantly boost enlistment and bring thousands more chareidim into military service. Detractors argue that even with harsher enforcement, there is no assurance that conscription orders will be respected. They further contend that legally allowing 50% of chareidim to remain exempt is unjust when compared to secular and religious-Zionist youth who are not granted such leniencies.
{Matzav.com Israel}