AG’s office: Any plan to let Haredi draft dodgers make pilgrimage to Uman is illegal

The Attorney General’s Office informed the government Friday that it has no right to create a mechanism to let ultra-Orthodox draft dodgers leave Israel, following reports this week suggesting it planned to do so to allow the men to make an annual pilgrimage to Uman, Ukraine, for Rosh Hashanah.

In a letter sent to the government, Deputy Attorney General Gil Limon said that although he was not currently aware of any plans to allow draft evaders to leave Israel for Uman, doing so would be illegal. Those evading conscription are prohibited from leaving the country.

“Although, as stated, we are not aware of any concrete intentions… we would like to clarify, if only to provide a complete picture, that a plan whose purpose is to avoid exercising law enforcement powers against draftees who do not enlist and violate their duty at the airport or at border crossings, is contrary to the law,” he wrote.

He also noted that “the law does not allow the government or any of its ministries to formulate an outline that would amount to interference in law enforcement activities or to order enforcement authorities to refrain from exercising law enforcement powers.”

It was reported earlier this week that Haredi lawmakers were pressing Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and the IDF to allow draft-dodging yeshiva students to partake in the Rosh Hashanah pilgrimage to Ukraine, with Shas party leader Aryeh Deri claiming that the journey is a religious obligation and should not be treated as leisure travel.

At the same time, United Torah Judaism party chair Yitzhak Goldknopf was said to have also asked Netanyahu for Hasidic Jews to be permitted to flout restrictions in order to fly to New York and other destinations during the High Holidays, calling the trip “a sublime spiritual experience that has no substitute.”

These efforts appeared to have not been so far successful, as reports on Thursday stated that the IDF was planning to station military police at ports of entry across Israel, including Ben Gurion Airport, to arrest draft evaders trying to head out for the holidays.

According to the Ynet news site, leading rabbis of the Breslov Hasidic movement have urged their followers to forgo the Uman pilgrimage if they are facing draft orders. The rabbis reportedly fear that if the ultra-Orthodox men are arrested, they may agree to be drafted to avoid prison time.

Tens of thousands travel annually to Uman for the Jewish New Year to be at the gravesite of the Hasidic sage Rabbi Nahman of Breslov, who lived at the turn of the 19th century.

The pilgrimage to Uman for the Jewish New Year next month has become an increasingly urgent priority for Haredi leaders, who have asked for permission for community members to head to the site and reportedly worked to secure NIS 10 million ($3 million) in government funds to facilitate travel to Ukraine via Moldova.

The discussions over Uman come amid a national debate over the longstanding Haredi exemption from mandatory military service. Some 80,000 Haredi men are eligible for the draft at a time when the IDF says it is facing an urgent manpower shortage amid the ongoing war.

Haredi leaders have instructed their followers to avoid the draft, portraying it as a threat to their way of life, and are pushing to enshrine mass exemptions in law.