AG urges defense minister to take ‘immediate action’ to penalize Haredi draft evaders
Government must ‘improve enforcement and impose personal sanctions,’ Deputy AG Limon writes, says only a ‘negligible’ fraction of ultra-Orthodox called up for service have enlisted
Sam Sokol is the Times of Israel's political correspondent. He was previously a reporter for the Jerusalem Post, Jewish Telegraphic Agency and Haaretz. He is the author of "Putin’s Hybrid War and the Jews"
The Attorney General’s Office appealed to Defense Minister Katz to advance sanctions on draft evaders with all “necessary urgency,” arguing that only a “negligible” fraction of ultra-Orthodox yeshiva students who were sent conscription orders have actually enlisted in the IDF.
In a letter Monday to the Defense Ministry’s legal adviser, Deputy Attorney General Gil Limon noted that Attorney General Gali Baharav-Miara had written to Katz earlier in the month in order to stress the “importance of him taking immediate action” on the issue in order to “improve enforcement and impose personal sanctions.”
However, “to date the minister has not responded to the attorney general’s letter,” he wrote.
Imposing sanctions on individuals is within the government’s purview and would not require the passage of new legislation, Limon argued, adding that various ministries have advanced various sanction proposals that would affect a range of areas from housing and business subsidies to property tax discounts.
Baharav-Miara’s previous message to Katz came after a meeting with government officials on the issue, during which representatives of the defense establishment, the Finance Ministry and the Justice Ministry said that personal penalties on draft dodgers, including revoking privileges and increasing administrative and economic sanctions, were critical for boosting military enlistment figures.
In June 2024, the High Court ruled that the government must draft ultra-Orthodox yeshiva students into the military, since there was no longer any legal framework to continue the decades-long practice of granting them blanket exemptions from service.
Haredi leaders vehemently oppose members of the community serving in the military, fearing they will be secularized. The issue, long a sensitive one in Israeli public discourse due to the perceived inequality created by the blanket exemption, has taken on renewed urgency with the military contending with a severe manpower shortage since the outbreak of the war in Gaza in October 2023.
Military officials have stated that since the court’s ruling, only 177 out of around 10,000 Haredim who received draft orders have reported for service. Brig. Gen. Shay Tayeb, head of the IDF Personnel Directorate’s Planning and Personnel Management Division, has also called for stronger sanctions on draft dodgers.
Under pressure from his ultra-Orthodox allies, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has repeatedly promised a quick resolution to the issue in recent months.
A bill dealing with the issue of enlistment is currently stuck in the Knesset Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee, whose chairman, Likud MK Yuli Edelstein, has said that the needs of the IDF must come first and that the panel would only advance the legislation if it legitimately addresses those needs.
Members of the coalition’s Agudat Yisrael faction have threatened to vote against the state budget, potentially bringing down the government, if legislation exempting yeshiva students from service isn’t passed before the budget is brought to a vote.
Katz has himself stated that he believes enlistment should be ramped up slowly and that eventually half of eligible Haredi draftees could end up serving while the rest continue studying in yeshivas, sparking a backlash among some Likud lawmakers who support more widespread conscription.
While Baharav-Miara has been outspoken in her advocacy for sanctions on draft evaders, her office does not appear to have taken any action against ultra-Orthodox organizations actively and publicly encouraging yeshiva students to ignore IDF enlistment orders.
A recent series of investigations by The Times of Israel found a growing ecosystem of such groups operating along similar lines. These include one linked to Jerusalem Affairs Minister Meir Porush that has counseled callers to “just ignore” summonses to the IDF’s recruitment bureau, as well as a call center operated by the “Vaad HaYeshivot” (Yeshiva Committee) which insists that yeshiva students “not report [to the army] under any circumstances.”
Under Israeli law, someone inciting others to evade service during wartime is liable to a prison term of 15 years.
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