The IDF will issue more than 50,000 draft orders to ultra-Orthodox yeshivah students next month, and will soon heighten enforcement measures against draft dodgers, the government said on Thursday.
The announcement comes amid a coalition crisis over the enlistment of the ultra-Orthodox, or Haredim, which threatens the collapse of the government.
The 54,000 draft orders to be issued next month will not be immediate but rather pertain to enlistment in the coming conscription year, which starts on July 1.
In addition, the IDF will also increase enforcement measures against the thousands of ultra-Orthodox men who have received conscription orders in the last year but have failed to present themselves at IDF recruitment offices, the government statement said.
The latest news on the hot-button conscription issue follows Thursday’s meeting attended by Attorney General Gali Baharav-Miara, IDF Personnel Directorate head Maj. Gen. Dado Bar Kalifa and other legal and military officials to discuss compliance with a High Court decision and the state’s response to petitions demanding enforcement of that ruling.
The Thursday night announcement also comes against the background of coalition negotiations between the government and the ultra-Orthodox parties—Shas and United Torah Judaism—over their threats to topple the government in a parliamentary vote of no-confidence to be presented by the opposition in a preliminary vote next week, unless the coalition advances legislation that anchors in law the blanket military service exemptions for ultra-Orthodox yeshivah students that the High Court struck down two years ago.
