Israel detains 40 ultra-Orthodox men accused of draft dodging

Tel Aviv — At least 40 ultra-Orthodox Jewish men were arrested upon arriving Tuesday morning at Israel's Ben Gurion Airport on suspicion of attempting to evade the country's military draft, the Israel Defense Forces said.

"The aforementioned individuals, who passed through the border crossing at Ben Gurion Airport, are subject to mandatory military service and will be tried in accordance with the law," the IDF said in a statement.

The mass-arrest by military police was unusual in its scale, and it came amid a national reckoning over whether the ultra-Orthodox should have to serve in the military like the rest of Israel's Jewish citizens.

The ultra-Orthodox have traditionally been exempt from military service, but in 2024, Israel's Supreme Court ruled that in the absence of any law legalizing the exemption, the military must start drafting them.

Since the Oct. 7, 2023, Hamas-led attacks on Israel and the subsequent multi-front war, the issue of equality of service has been thrust to the forefront of political debate ahead of Israel's looming national elections on Oct. 27.

Many Israelis who serve in the military, particularly in the reserves, have complained of having to take on an unfair amount of the security burden for the state.

Ultra-Orthodox or Haredi Jews make up around 13% of Israel's population, but that number is growing faster than any other group in the country. They are expected to represent close to 25% of the population by 2050, according to projections by Israel's Central Bureau of Statistics.

Rather than serve in the military, most ultra-Orthodox men study full-time in religious seminaries.

Ultra-Orthodox political leaders have demanded a law to formalize the group's broad exemption from the draft, but one that would also determine a percentage of ultra-Orthodox men and women who would be subject to compulsory service.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has relied directly, since the last national elections in 2022, on the support of ultra-Orthodox parties to remain in power, and he has had to walk a tight line between their demands and those of other supporters demanding equality of service.

In an interview Tuesday morning with the ultra-Orthodox radio station Kol Barama, Netanyahu said he opposed the arrests of ultra-Orthodox draft evaders, arguing that it harmed efforts to enlist them without coercion.