Enraged by arrests of draft evaders, Israel’s ultra-Orthodox community is in revolt

Inside Story

Yeshiva students are blocking roads and breaking into police stations as Haredi parties hold coalition’s legislative agenda hostage. PM said to be considering halting detentions

By Sam Sokol

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Sam Sokol is the Times of Israel's political correspondent. He was previously a reporter for the Jerusalem Post, Jewish Telegraphic Agency and Haaretz. He is the author of "Putin’s Hybrid War and the Jews"

Angered by government efforts to detain draft evaders, Israel’s ultra-Orthodox community has risen in revolt in recent weeks, threatening to derail Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s legislative agenda while simultaneously bringing chaos to the country’s streets through a series of increasingly violent demonstrations.

The arrests ramped up last month after police announced that they would begin detaining draft evaders they had previously allowed to go free, in line with a recent court ruling.

Over the past two years, the military has sent out tens of thousands of enlistment orders to members of the ultra-Orthodox community whose exemptions from mandatory service in the Israel Defense Forces were revoked under a 2024 High Court ruling. Most have ignored the orders, leading to large numbers of young men being classified as evaders and made subject to arrest or other sanctions.

Some 80,000 ultra-Orthodox men aged between 18 and 24 are currently believed to be eligible for military service, but have not enlisted, despite a persistent IDF manpower shortage.

The police’s decision to ramp up enforcement came only days after the Knesset’s Haredi factions announced that they would seek to dissolve the Knesset and trigger early elections over the coalition’s failure to pass a controversial law restoring yeshiva students’ draft exemptions.

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Since then, ultra-Orthodox lawmakers have ramped up their rhetoric, threatening a tax revolt; calling on police to disobey orders; demanding local authorities halt cooperation with law enforcement; and even threatening to go after Attorney General Gali Baharav-Miara — a major proponent of enforcement operations — “with sticks and stones.”

Chaos in the streets

This rhetoric has been accompanied by action by members of the ultra-Orthodox community, especially those affiliated with the so-called hardline Jerusalem Faction, who have taken to the streets in an effort to block the arrests.

On Wednesday morning, Haredi protesters blocked traffic near the central Israeli city of Bnei Brak, during an anti-draft demonstration that became violent, with police using stun grenades and batons to disperse participants.

Later on in the day, thousands of Haredi demonstrators from a different sect gathered outside the IDF’s Beit Lid military prison to protest the arrest of an ultra-Orthodox draft evader being held at the facility.

In recent weeks, Haredi demonstrators smashed windows while trying to enter Supreme Court Deputy Chief Justice Noam Sohlberg’s house during a riot, forced their way into a police compound in Beit Shemesh, and broke into the home of the Military Police chief while his family was inside.

Haredi radicals also recently attempted to break into a police station in Jerusalem’s Russian Compound.

A legislative boycott

At the same time that radicals have taken to the streets, the Haredi political leadership has engaged in a parallel political effort, pushing a series of bills intended to reduce draft dodgers’ sentences, equate Torah study with military service, and restore benefits for draft evaders cut by the government.

On Tuesday, members of the Knesset House Committee vote unanimously to refer a proposed Basic Law declaring Torah study a foundational value of the State of Israel to the Knesset Constitution, Law and Justice Committee.

The bill, which was approved in a preliminary reading in the full Knesset plenum last week, is aimed at defining those who dedicate themselves to long-term Torah study as performing “meaningful service” to the state, effectively equating it to army service and conferring upon yeshiva students equal rights to those who serve in the army.

According to Channel 12, an updated draft of the bill has removed wording referring to the benefits granted to yeshiva students and directly equating full-time Torah study to military service — although the Haredi parties do not believe that the change will make a substantive difference.

Despite this, all coalition bills were removed from the Knesset agenda for the third day in a row on Wednesday, as the Shas and United Torah Judaism parties continued a legislative boycott aimed at forcing the advancement of another bill to overturn an August 2024 order by the attorney general cutting daycare subsidies for the children of draft evaders.

Despite a committee vote to advance the legislation, the coalition has declined to bring it to the plenum for a vote, citing a lack of support — although one Likud MK who spoke with The Times of Israel on condition of anonymity said, “It’s not just about counting votes, it’s about Likud being scared of public opinion before the elections.”

“I don’t think it will pass,” the source stated.

The continuation of the boycott appeared to signal at least a temporary halt to the coalition’s ongoing legislative blitz, coming as lawmakers attempt to pass laws splitting up the role of the attorney general, establishing a political commission of inquiry into October 7, and giving the government significant control over the media before the upcoming pre-election Knesset recess.

The coalition has a narrow window to pass these bills, with a source with knowledge of the matter telling The Times of Israel that the recess will probably begin on July 16.

Halting the arrests

In an effort to break the impasse, Netanyahu is reportedly considering a measure, backed by Shas chairman Aryeh Deri, to extract a section of the coalition’s failed draft exemption legislation halting the arrests of evaders, and pass it as a standalone bill.

According to the Ynet news site, Netanyahu has informed his ultra-Orthodox partners that there is a Knesset majority for such a move.

However, a senior United Torah Judaism source dismissed the idea that Netanyahu would move to halt the arrests, telling The Times of Israel that it was “nonsense.”

The Likud lawmaker agreed, stating that it was unlikely to achieve majority support and has already run into opposition from Knesset legal advisers.

Despite this, a second Likud lawmaker said that some members of the coalition “see the arrests as something nonproductive, and therefore they would maybe support stopping the arrests” — but would draw the line at halting economic sanctions against evaders and passing the Daycare Law.

This opposition will put increasing pressure on Netanyahu to find a solution to the political impasse and calm tensions on the street, a difficult task given that the short amount of time before the elections is quickly running out.

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