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Government Secretary Yossi Fuchs intends to begin by drafting 4,800 haredim in the 2024 draft year (between July 2024 – June 2025).
By ELIAV BREUER JANUARY 27, 2025 14:08
An illustrative image of haredi (ultra-Orthodox) Israeli Jews near a sign for an IDF recruiting office.
(photo credit: FLASH90)
Government Secretary Yossi Fuchs presented in the Knesset Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee the most detailed version yet of the government’s intentions regarding the contentious issue of the haredi draft.
According to Fuchs, the government intends to begin by drafting 4,800 haredim in the 2024 draft year (between July 2024 – June 2025), 5760 haredim in the 2025 draft year (July 2025 – June 2026), and then a gradual increase until reaching a number equivalent to 50% of the 18-year-old haredi cohort within seven years. This is projected to be approximately 9,000 (out of a graduating cohort numbering 18,000).
Fuchs explained, however, that the yearly number of draftees would not come out of the specific graduating cohort, but out of the entire “pool” of eligible haredi draftees, including older haredim who are still eligible for the draft. In other words, in seven years, according to the government’s plan, 9,000 haredim must join the IDF, but they may come from all relevant ages.
Regarding sanctions, Fuchs said that the requirement for the quota is on the haredi community as a collective. If the collective meets the quota, then all the eligible haredim who did not join the IDF will not be sanctioned, and will be eligible for state benefits. However, if the collective does not meet the quota, all eligible haredim will be sanctioned, and lose rights to benefits such as state-subsidized daycare.
Personal vs. collective accountability
The head of the finance ministry’s budget department, Yoav Gardos, said in response that history has proven that when the quota is a requirement on the collective and there is no personal requirement to enlist, then there is no incentive for the individual to enlist. Even if the individuals will end up receiving sanctions, the individual haredi has no incentive to be the one to “fill the quota”. In addition, positive incentives, as opposed to sanctions, have proven to be ineffective on the haredi public – already today, there are significant incentives to serving in the IDF, yet the haredi numbers remain low.
Fuchs also said that the government wanted to maintain the “age of exemption” at 26, as it currently is, after which haredim will be exempt from service. The 2022 bill proposed to lower that number to between 21 and 23, in order to enable haredim to join the workforce sooner.
Gardos, however, said that rather than encourage the IDF draft, the “age of exemption” encouraged haredim to remain “chained to the yeshiva,” as they did not want to join the IDF, but were not permitted to join the workforce.
Instead, Gardos suggested that there be an individual requirement for haredim to join the IDF – and effective sanctions if they evade the draft. Gardos did not express opposition to the exemption of some haredim in order for them to study full-time in yeshivot.
Gardos added that from an economic perspective, the focus of the bill needed to be on relieving the burden of the reservists, since prolonged reserve duty was an economic burden on the economy in general and on the reservists themselves in particular. The central way to relieve the burden of reservists is to increase the standing army. This can only be achieved either by lengthening the service of the current soldiers, or by drafting new population groups. Draft potential in the general public, which are approximately 90%, have largely been exhausted, and the only relevant source of manpower was the haredi public, Gardos explained.
Fuchs also criticized comments made by Deputy Attorney General Gil Limon at a previous discussion regarding procedural flaws regarding the bill. Instead of beginning legislation from scratch, the government decided to approve the continuation of a previous bill from 2022, despite Limon deeming it “not legally viable” due to the significant changes in Israel’s national security needs since the October 7 Hamas massacre.
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Fuchs argued that the attorney general’s office had never before filed a legal opinion on the procedure of continuing legislation of a previous government, and that it did not have the right to do so now.
Limon countered that this case was different, since in the past it was the particular minister who brought forward a bill proposed by his or her predecessor. However, in this case, the defense minister at the time of the approval in government, Yoav Gallant, did not approve the bill and was against the procedure.
Limon added that as a government proposed bill, the government had not even debated the current version of the bill proposed by Fuchs. This was an example of the procedural flaw, whereby the government was attempting to avoid legal oversight by passing a government proposed bill without due process.
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