Posted on 07/09/24
| News Source: JPost
Defense Minister Yoav Gallant and the IDF have agreed to issue draft orders to Haredim on a massive scale sometime next month.
A statement from the Defense Ministry did not give the number of draft orders that would be issued. Still, the IDF has said it could immediately integrate around 3,000 Haredim in addition to the 1,800 it already has.
The 3,000 is out of a class of around 10,000-12,000 per academic year, with over 60,000 Haredim potentially in play from several academic years following the High Court of Justice's June 25 blockbuster order for a universal draft and the freezing of funds to Haredi institutions which do not comply.
That order, with momentum from the fact that so many IDF soldiers have died in the current war, broke open the issue of potentially drafting more Haredim after UTJ and Shas had kept the issue out of the public eye for years.
Yet, part of the idea is that Haredim requires special arrangements, including often service environments with special religious provisions and with fewer interactions with female soldiers.
Meanwhile, the Haredi political parties are under pressure to regain their institutions' funding but have not shown clear signs of being willing to compromise and push for even a larger partial draft.