An organization that works with ultra-Orthodox soldiers called on the prime minister to end the recent wave of arrests of young haredi yeshiva students, warning that arrests threaten any solution to the draft issue.
"The direct attack on the Torah world and yeshiva students is causing direct harm to haredi recruitment for meaningful military service," Netzah Yehuda Organization CEO Yossi Levi wrote in a letter earlier this month to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Defense Minister Israel Katz.
“The path to strengthening unity within Israeli society and expanding the circle of those who serve does not pass through threats, sanctions, arrests, or a discourse of confrontation,” Levi wrote. “These measures do not bring us closer to a solution; they move us further away from one."
Levi stressed that draft efforts should focus on haredim who are not enrolled in a yeshiva, instead of interfering with those who have committed to full-time Torah study.
He warned that the recent arrests have the potential to discourage young haredi men who may already be considering military enlistment, including those who may be interested in combat service.
Levy’s position may have been influenced by a recent decision of the High Court of Justice criticizing the police's inaction on the issue of draft dodgers.
IDF to step up arresting haredi draft dodgers
On May 25, ultra-Orthodox media outlet Kol Barama reported that the IDF asked Israel Police to allocate forces for the proactive arrest of haredi draft dodgers, moving away from the previous approach of passively arresting those found during routine police activity.
Kol Barama cited a police source as saying that the IDF had instructed Israel Police to "arrest every draft dodger located in the central region and transfer him to the Military Police as part of the operations, without exception.”
According to KAN News, the Israel Police Operations Department is reviewing the request, and further discussions are expected, noting that Police Commissioner Danny Levy has refused to grant the IDF police support of this kind in the past.
Earlier, on May 25, dozens of haredi protesters attempted to storm a Jerusalem police station following the arrest of an alleged draft dodger, lightly injuring an officer and damaging nearby police vehicles.
Miriam Sela-Eitam and Tzvi Jasper contributed to this report.