Israeli Politicsupdated 24m ago3 min read
Ultra-Orthodox Draft Debate Ignites Israel Election Battleground Over Haredi Conscription
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Ultra-Orthodox conscription debate dominates campaign, shaping party platforms and voter priorities. Netanyahu's Torah exemption pledge becomes a central election-stakes issue.
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Draft Exemption at Center
Israel’s election battleground ahead of the October 27 vote has centered on whether ultra-Orthodox Jewish men, or Haredi men, should serve in the military, with an estimated 80,000 Haredi men aged between 18 and 24 avoiding military service. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu told the Haredi Kol Barama radio station, “We must preserve the world of Torah because it preserved us,” as he opposed the arrest of 40 Haredim taken in for evading the draft after returning to Israel from the United States. The Al Jazeera account ties the issue to the Hamas-led attack of October 7, 2023, and to staff shortages in the Israeli army, while it also describes Haredi anger after a 2024 Supreme Court ruling that the military must begin drafting ultra-Orthodox men.
Gadi Eisenkot, a former Chief of Staff whose Yashar party holds a narrow lead over Netanyahu’s Likud, condemned an October clash in Modi’in as reflecting “the same dangerous world view that seeks to make draft evasion the norm and portray those who fulfil their duty to the state as suckers”. The BBC frames the election as Israel’s first since the October 7, 2023 attacks and says current polling puts Netanyahu in a tight race with Eisenkot for prime minister, with security failures from 7 October a dominating campaign topic.
Polls, Parties, and Pushback
Israel Democracy Institute polling found that 72 percent wanted to see the Haredim drafted alongside other Israelis eligible for military service, and Israeli pollster Mitchell Barak said the opposition is pitching the election as “the draft dodgers versus those who protect and serve”. Daniel Bar-Tal, a professor of psychology at Tel Aviv University, described the political dilemma as “On the one hand, the issue of equal service unites all the secular and Zionist religious public,” while he said “On the other side, the ultra-Orthodox are rightist … This does not go together, so [Netanyahu] has a dilemma.” The BBC explains that Israel’s Knesset has 120 seats and that a government must hold 61 seats to command a majority, with proportional representation meaning coalitions and negotiations can take weeks or even months.
The BBC also says the election is the first since the October 7 attacks and notes that Netanyahu’s challengers heavily criticize the security failures that led to the 7 October attacks, in which nearly 1,200 people were killed and 251 others taken back to Gaza as hostages. The Council on Foreign Relations account adds that a party must receive at least 3.25 percent of the national vote to enter the Knesset, and it states that this threshold is “equivalent to four seats” under Israel’s system.
New Options and Coalition Math
A new haredi political party, The Haredi Public, has entered the election conversation with Yehoshua Pfeffer, a British-born haredi rabbi in Jerusalem, arguing that “Israel needs the haredi community to contribute more to society; we need it for our own sustainability.”
“Israel needs the haredi community to contribute more to society; we need it for our own sustainability.”
Pfeffer’s party promotes IDF conscription for men who are not full-time yeshiva students, and it also supports the introduction of secular studies in haredi K–12 schools, while it seeks to attract haredi voters who want to work full-time rather than rely on public assistance or philanthropy.
The Times of Israel reports that Charedi Public chairman Moti Leitner announced at a press conference that his party would remain in next week’s election race despite pressure from parties in Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s outgoing coalition to withdraw.
Leitner told a Tel Aviv International Salon audience, “Haredi society can no longer live parallel to the rest of Israel. We must be part of it, and we must take an active role in it,” and he said his party supports IDF conscription for those not studying full-time in yeshiva.
The BBC says the president consults parties and gives a mandate to the member of the Knesset best suited to form a government, and it warns that if no bloc can form a majority, a minority government could take power or Israelis could return to the ballot box.