Former Chief Rabbi Yitzhak Yosef is heard in a video obtained by Ynet saying that "anyone who receives a draft notice should tear it up and not go." He added that anyone who refuses and is taken to jail will be accompanied by the head of his yeshiva.
Yosef recounted visiting wounded soldiers and touring an IDF base, where he met soldiers, some of whom were not religious. "Much respect to the IDF for their efforts, we appreciate what they do," he said. "But without the Torah, where would we be headed? Instead of allocating more budgets to yeshivas, they issue draft notices."
He then stated there should be no ultra-Orthodox enlistment in the IDF. "I say, anyone who receives a draft notice should tear it up and not go. He is with the Torah. He is a soldier in the army of God. He won't be afraid of them. Certainly, he won't listen to them. If they take him to jail, the head of his yeshiva will go with him."
"It's a shame they don't understand these things. The Torah has protected us throughout the generations. How did the Jewish people survive 2,000 years in exile? We survived solely through the holy Torah. There was no state, nothing. How did we survive? Through the holy Torah. They don't understand these things," he added.
In another recording, Yosef also said that even Haredi men who do not study in yeshivas should not enlist. "Every Torah scholar is exempt from enlisting, even someone who is idle and not studying. Those who join the army deteriorate. There are female soldiers, officers and inappropriate things there. Don't go there, period."
Yosef, who concluded his term as chief rabbi at the end of last month, has repeatedly spoken against ultra-Orthodox conscription into the IDF, and in one case even threatened to leave the country. However, he previously said in March that those expelled from their studies could enlist. "Those few among our community who do not study Torah, it is completely forbidden for them to be exempt," he said at the time.