Netanyahu: Arrests are sabotaging Haredi IDF enlistment

The IDF’s Military Police reportedly prepared in advance to arrest dozens of Haredi men at Ben-Gurion Airport.

By World Israel News Staff

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu criticized the arrest of young Haredi men who have not enlisted in the Israeli military, arguing that imprisoning yeshiva students does not encourage the ultra-Orthodox community’s integration into the Israel Defense Forces (IDF).

Speaking Tuesday morning to the ultra-Orthodox radio station Kol Berama, Netanyahu said he opposed detaining yeshiva students who had not cooperated with the military draft process.

The arrests of alleged draft-dodgers have sparked outrage in the ultra-Orthodox community, with mass protests oftentimes seen in the hours after young men are detained.

“These arrests are a deliberate attempt to harm the process of drafting Haredim without coercion,” Netanyahu told the station, adding that young religious men who are not studying in yeshivas “should go enlist.”

His remarks came the same morning that approximately 50 young Haredi men were arrested at Ben-Gurion Airport after returning to Israel from the United States.

The men, members of the ultra-Orthodox Chabad community, had spent a year studying at yeshivas in New York. Military Police had reportedly received advance notice of their arrival and deployed additional officers at the airport to facilitate the arrests.

According to reports, preparations had been made in advance to transport the detainees to a military prison, with a bus reportedly waiting to take them into custody.

The men could face different outcomes depending on whether they agree to enlist. According to reports, those willing to join the military immediately will receive suspended sentences and begin their service. Those who refuse to enlist will face trial and remain in military prison in the meantime.

In a statement to The Times of Israel, the IDF said all the men arrested at the airport “are required to enlist and will be tried in accordance with the law.”

The IDF added that “the Military Police routinely enforces the Defense Service Law, including at border crossings” and that it will continue to “enforce the Defense Service Law equally and ensure fulfillment of the duty to serve.”