Gallant Approves Draft Orders for 1,000 Haredim on Sunday

Defense Minister Yoav Gallant approved the sending out of approximately a thousand draft orders to ultra-Orthodox men on Sunday, July 21, marking the first orders sent out since the landmark ruling by the High Court of Justice in June, which officially ended the long-standing haredi exemption from IDF service.

According to a statement put out by the ministry, the IDF intends to send out a thousand draft orders in three waves, to meet its goal of 3,000 haredi draftees this year, in addition to the 1,800 who were slated to join existing IDF frameworks.

The IDF will conduct a “learning process” at the end of each wave, to improve the process for the next wave, the statement read. The second wave will occur in approximately two weeks, and the third two weeks later, Brig.-Gen. Relli Margalit from the IDF’s Operations Branch told the Knesset Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee (FADC) on Thursday afternoon.

The IDF traditionally drafts three times a year, roughly in March, July, and November. The current orders are being sent out as part of the July draft, and haredi draft plans for the next two rounds will be set “according to haredi turnout” in the current draft.

The number of summons could jump to 24,000 to ensure 3,000 actually join up. The 24,000 number was a maximum worst-case estimate if the haredim’s compliance with the summons was lower than expected, whereas the IDF said it might only need to issue closer to 6,000 summons to get 3,000 haredim to actually enter the IDF. (JPost / VFI News)