A full send draft notices," a senior rabbinical authority said of Defense Minister Yoav Gallant on Wednesday, as Haredi spiritual leaders continue their fight against a possible draft of Haredi men into the IDF. Gallant had said he would not support any legislation to exempt the ultra-Orthodox from military service if it did not have broad support in the Knesset.
"Everyone knows that even one day in the military is destruction. We fighting God's war," Rabbi Meir Zvi Bergman, a member of the Council of Sages for the United Torah Judaism Party said.
Earlier Rabbi Dov Lando, another leader of the ultra-Orthodox community and head of the Slabodka Yeshiva instructed his draft-age flock to refuse to show up for the preliminary process every Israeli youth must go through before being drafted to military service, in a letter published in a Haredi newspaper on Thursday.
Landau said the Supreme Court in its ruling last month declared war on the ultra-Orthodox community. The court ruled that the military must call up Haredi conscripts after law exempting yeshiva students from service, expired and no new legislation was passed.
His instruction comes after other rabbinical leaders declared that their flock would not serve in the IDF even if they were not full-time students of the Torah. Outgoing Sephardic Chief Rabbi Yitzhak Yosef said he would take his followers out of the country altogether if they w forced to participate in the military.
Ultra-Orthodox exemption from service has threatened Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's coalition which relies on Haredi partners after he committed in his coalition agreements to legislate a new and broad exemption bill.
Since the outbreak of war, the military identified a shortage of troops that would require extending the compulsory service and increasing time served in the reserves. Defense Minister Yoav Gallant openly opposed legislation that did not have broad support in the Knesset, foiling Netanyahu's efforts to pass a new law to appease his partners.
Opposition leader Yair Lapid slammed Landau's call and accused the government of hypocrisy after ministers had claimed that protesters of Netanyahu's government endangered Israel's security when they threatened not to volunteer for reserve duty if the government legislated laws that they said would compromise Israel's democracy.
Members of Netanyahu's government said the October 7 massacre was due to the protests which Hamas saw as a sign of Israel's weakness.
"The prime minister and his ministers must condemn Landau explicitly, doing otherwise means abandoning the soldiers and forsaking the values of the IDF and the state,” Lapid said.
The IDF said on Wednesday that it will begin sending draft notices to Haredi men. It has been making efforts in recent weeks to locate draft-age ultra-Orthodox youths who are not full-time yeshiva students. IDF Personnel Directorate commander Major General Yaniv Asor told the Knesset's Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee that the IDF’s goal was to enlist about 10,000 ultra-Orthodox youths by 2026.