Nearly half of Israelis support tougher sanctions on haredi young men in an effort to increase their enlistment in the IDF.
That is the conclusion of the July 2026 Israeli Society Index published by the Jewish People Policy Institute (JPPI). According to the survey, 46% of the general public and 50% of Jewish respondents believe that haredi young men can be recruited into military service and that additional pressure should be applied to achieve that goal.
In contrast, 31% of respondents favor promoting enlistment through agreements with the haredi leadership, while only 11% believe there is no realistic prospect of drafting haredim into the IDF and that efforts to do so should be discontinued.
The findings reveal sharp political divisions over the most appropriate way to encourage enlistment. Among center- and left-wing voters, support for imposing sanctions is overwhelming, standing at 73% and 79%, respectively. Among right-wing voters, however, a 59% majority prefers an approach based on agreements with the haredi leadership.
Significant differences also emerged along party lines. Seventy-five percent of Likud supporters favor the agreement-based approach, while 84% of Yisrael Beiteinu supporters support tougher sanctions. Within the haredi community itself, 45% believe enlistment can be achieved through agreements with community leaders, 36% think there is little or no chance of such a development, and only 15% support the use of sanctions.
The survey also examined public attitudes toward haredi protests against the arrest of draft evaders. Thirty-nine percent of respondents, including 53% of secular Israelis, said the demonstrations are unjustified and should be prevented. At the same time, 32% of Israelis argued that if road blockades were permitted during the protests against the judicial reform, similar actions should also be permitted for haredi demonstrators. This position is especially prevalent among right-wing voters and Likud supporters.
Prof. Yedidia Stern, president of the Jewish People Policy Institute, said the data indicate that the debate over haredi enlistment is driven primarily by political affiliation. According to Stern, the right seeks to preserve its political alliance with the haredi parties and therefore opposes sanctions, while the center and the left generally support applying them. “When the decisive factor is political rather than substantive, a solution appears more distant than ever," he said.