Haredim protested outside Tel Hashomer’s IDF induction center on Monday morning to denounce the military’s attempts to draft them.
Video footage seen by The Jerusalem Post shows protesters sitting on the road and blocking vehicles, before being forcefully cleared by police officers.
Out of the approximately 10,000 draft orders sent over the last two months, only 994 haredim showed up at the draft office, 2,491 are under an arrest warrant for dodging the draft, and 184 were placed under a travel ban preventing them from leaving the country, KAN News reported Monday morning.
However, these numbers are an improvement from the preceding three months, in which 367 haredim showed up at the draft office after 7,014 orders were sent out, while 2,473 arrest warrants and 446 travel bans were issued.
“I would be happy if there was support from the other side (the wider haredi community), but, unfortunately, we have yet to see any change,” head of the IDF Personnel Planning Branch Brig.-Gen. Shay Taib told Army Radio.
“We proposed imposing sanctions that affect the individual draft dodgers in their daily lives,” Taib continued.
High Court demands explanation on draft dodgers
On Sunday, it was announced that the government and the army have until June 24 to explain to the High Court of Justice why more draft orders have not gone out to eligible haredi (ultra-Orthodox) men, and why sanctions have not been imposed on draft dodgers.
The conditional order issued by the HCJ comes amid a war with no end in sight and troops, especially reservists, who are worn and exhausted by a year-and-a-half of war, that they have put their lives on hold and at risk for. The government’s goal is to have 4,800 haredi draftees a year, which will exponentially rise over the next few years.
The army must create new frameworks for haredi soldiers within the Israel Air Force, the Intelligence Corps, and in the field. The responsibility is on the army to create the framework, and on the haredi community to provide the troops.
Sarah Ben-Nun contributed to this report.
