Ultra-Orthodox Soldiers in IDF Report Growing Talk of Group Absence Over Draft Tensions

Tensions around Israel’s draft legislation, daycare subsidies, and stepped-up enforcement against yeshiva students and married scholars labeled as draft evaders are spilling into the IDF’s ultra-Orthodox tracks. According to accounts obtained by Behadrei Haredim, soldiers in these units are speaking openly in private groups about coordinated resistance, including a possible mass refusal to report for duty.

One soldier in a technological track said, “If there is no change by the state,” and if restrictions on daycare, licenses, and measures against draft evaders are not rolled back, “the ultra-Orthodox in the IDF are planning to simply stop coming to base one day.” He said the idea is to create a collective absence, adding that the state must understand “we will not go along with it” if this is how it treats ultra-Orthodox families. Another soldier described deep anger, saying the groups are noisy all day and that many feel it is wrong to sit in the army while their “brothers outside” are fighting the system.

The soldiers say the pressure is also directed at the official bodies and intermediaries that run the ultra-Orthodox tracks. They accuse the program leaders of a conflict of interest, claiming they profit from each enlistment, about 10,000 shekels per recruit, and therefore will not support protest. Some soldiers say rabbis tied to these bodies have not yet issued a formal stop order, but at least one rabbi was said to have told callers not to enlist for now and that it is better to pause.

The article says a wider wave of departures could begin only after a final instruction from leading rabbis or rebbes. One soldier said many are waiting for that signal, and if his own rebbe tells them to stop coming, “we’re out.” The report recalls a recent precedent from about three weeks ago, when a Belz Hasid was arrested in Kiryat Gat on suspicion of draft evasion hours before Shabbat. That arrest triggered fury in the Belz leadership, which threatened that hundreds of Belz enlistees would go home on Sunday and cut ties with police and army channels. Police later backed down, the man was released before Shabbat, and soldiers now see that episode as proof of their leverage.