Senior Haredi leader threatens ‘global struggle like never before’ to avoid IDF draft

The spiritual leader of the ultra-Orthodox Degel HaTorah party on Wednesday accused the government of waging war on the Haredi community, following the arrest of two Haredi draft evaders.

“The State of Israel has declared war on yeshiva students. Haredi Judaism will embark on a global struggle like never before,” a spokesman for Rabbi Dov Lando, one of the most prominent rabbinic leaders of the so-called “Lithuanian” stream of ultra-Orthodoxy, declared in a statement.

Alongside the Hasidic Agudat Yisrael, Degel HaTorah is one of the two factions in the United Torah Judaism party.

Lando’s statement came as he held an “emergency consultation” with Haredi activists at his home in Bnei Brak, in order to arrive at “a consensus for a response” among the various Haredi sub-groups.

Addressing a rabbinical conference in the central city of Bnei Brak last week, Lando warned that if Israeli authorities begin to arrest yeshiva students for draft evasion, the Haredi community will “make the world tremble, with all our strength and heart” and that the government would find itself facing “a united, global Haredi Jewry that is fighting for its very soul.”

A source in the Haredi political parties told Haaretz on Wednesday that the ultra-Orthodox leadership has plans drawn up by Haredi businessmen for “quiet civil disobedience,” including “collapsing large companies (through a boycott) or banks (through massive cash withdrawals).”

Ultra-Orthodox Jews protest against the recruitment of Haredim to the IDF, in the ultra-Orthodox neighborhood of Mea Shearim in Jerusalem, July 31, 2025. (Chaim Goldberg/Flash90)

“We are getting close to a civil war,” the source said.

However, other sources from the party were quoted as saying by Army Radio that “we have a gun without bullets. Aside from the threat to leave the government (which already happened), we have no real way to fight the arrest of yeshiva students.”

While the Israel Defense Forces have been working to crack down on draft evasion, the Knesset’s ultra-Orthodox parties, Shas and United Torah Judaism, have been pushing hard for the passage of a bill enabling most ultra-Orthodox males to continue to avoid mandatory military conscription or other national service.

Last month, UTJ quit the coalition after being presented with a copy of a proposed enlistment bill prepared by then-Knesset Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee chairman, Yuli Edelstein, which, it argued, had violated the terms of a supposed compromise reached in June. They were quickly followed by Shas, which, while quitting the government, has remained part of the coalition.

Netanyahu’s Likud party this week ousted Edelstein as chair of the committee handling the issue and replaced him with MK Boaz Bismuth in hopes of reaching a deal with UTJ and Shas, which fiercely oppose enlistment.

Yisrael Beytenu chairman Avigdor Liberman slammed Lando for his remarks, writing on X, “The people of Israel are mobilized to fight our enemy. The entire Haredi leadership is mobilized to fight the IDF, the troops and the reservists who are carrying the burden.” He vowed that Israel’s next government “will put an end to evasion.”

Yisrael Beytenu chair Avigdor Liberman leads a faction meeting at the Knesset on July 7, 2025. (Yonatan Sindel/ Flash90)

Liberman noted that Rabbi Lando held the meeting on the Haredi community’s response to the arrest of draft dodgers, “while our soldiers are fighting on all fronts and risking their lives.”

“If they mobilized for the security of the state as they are mobilizing for evasion, the State of Israel would be stronger and more united,” he added.

Earlier this year, Liberman filed a police complaint against several prominent ultra-Orthodox rabbis, including Lando, over statements calling on yeshiva students to ignore IDF enlistment orders in apparent violation of the law.

Yesh Atid MK Moshe Tur-Paz, a member of the Knesset Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee, told The Times of Israel: “This is a great shame, a desecration of God’s name and complete disconnection from Israeli society.”

“At a time when Netanyahu’s cabinet is marching Israel to another pointless act of war in Gaza that will only cause the death of hostages and also harm many soldiers, Rabbi Lando threatens ‘war’ to prevent Haredi youth from enlisting and helping the war effort,” he said.

“Two years after October 7, the Haredim are proving they are not worthy to be part of the leadership of the country,” he added.

Uri Keidar, the chair of the Israel Hofsheet religious freedom advocacy group, said in a statement, “There is no clearer evidence of the Haredi disconnect than the proclamation that enforcing the law in an equal way is a declaration of war.”

Keidar accused the Haredi leadership of ensuring that everyone else would fight the war imposed on Israel after the October 7, 2023, Hamas-led massacre in southern Israel that started the ongoing war.

Ultra-Orthodox soldiers from the IDF’s new Haredi Hasmonean Brigade take part in a beret march after completing seven months of basic and advanced training, at the Western Wall in Jerusalem’s Old City, on August 6, 2025. (Chaim Goldberg/Flash90)

“Privileges are vanishing one after another thanks to a determined struggle, and it seems that the Haredi leadership understands that the ability to evade is fading. It’s time for equality,” he said.

The Knesset Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee next week will hold its first discussion on ultra-Orthodox enlistment since Bismuth took charge of the panel.

Members of the committee were informed that they would meet to discuss advancing the government’s controversial enlistment legislation on Tuesday, in preparation for the second and third plenum readings it must pass to become law.

Edelstein’s bill would have imposed harsh sanctions on draft dodgers, including the revocation of drivers’ licenses, a ban on flying abroad, a prohibition on applying for civil service jobs, no government subsidies for purchasing an apartment, and cancellations of discounts on public transportation, National Insurance payments, and electricity bills.

Bismuth told reservists during a meeting Wednesday at the Knesset that convincing Haredim to enlist “can’t be done in a day,” while at the same time saying the law was an “immediate” issue for him and cannot wait 10 years, according to a recording published by the Knesset Channel.

“Broadly, we agree,” he said, adding, “Broadly, to serve in the army is a duty but also a huge privilege. When you receive an enlistment order, you get excited.”

But Bismuth added that Torah study was very important, and that despite being one nation, everyone “comes with their own culture.”

MK Boaz Bismuth leads a Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee meeting at the Knesset on August 4, 2025. (Yonatan Sindel/Flash90)

One of the reservists in the meeting warned him: “In the year and a half we have been working on this issue, they agreed to some clauses in the enlistment bill. They never agreed to enlist. When they look at the enlistment bill, that you and I want to advance, they see codification of the status of yeshiva students.”

Bismuth has not yet said how he will approach the issue, although he has emphasized the importance of both Torah study and military service. Earlier Wednesday, he congratulated members of the first company of troops from the IDF’s new ultra-Orthodox Hasmonean Brigade on their completion of combat training, stating that “the army and the Torah go together, shoulder to shoulder. One strengthens the other.”

He has previously tweeted that “it is possible to combine the two” and that “the conscription law is a national matter, not a political one.”

Last month, he was filmed telling Negev, Galilee and National Resilience Minister Yitzhak Wasserlauf that he agreed that Israel needed both soldiers and Torah students.

Some 80,000 ultra-Orthodox men aged between 18 and 24 are currently believed to be eligible for military service, but have not enlisted. The IDF has said it urgently needs 12,000 recruits, due to the strain on standing and reserve forces during the ongoing war against Hamas in Gaza and other military challenges. Overall, around 2,700 Haredim in total joined the army over the past year.

In a filing to the High Court of Justice on Tuesday, the Attorney General’s Office asserted that while the IDF has significantly increased efforts to enlist members of the ultra-Orthodox community, including by sending out 54,000 conscription orders over the last month and substantially increasing enforcement against draft dodgers, it was “essential” that the state do more to increase sanctions and deny more benefits to evaders.