AG asks High Court for further extension for gov’t to legislate law regulating Haredi draft exemptions

The Attorney General’s Office requests a further extension from the High Court of Justice to legislate a law regulating the exemptions received by ultra-Orthodox men from military service, as the current deadline to pass such a law by March 31 rapidly approaches.

In the state’s response to petitions against the ongoing blanket military service exemptions enjoyed by Haredi men, the Attorney General’s Office says that without an extension to the government resolution from June 2023 permitting the government not to conscript ultra-Orthodox men, the state will become legally obligated to begin drafting them on April 1.

The response drafted by the State Attorney’s Office and filed by the Attorney General’s Office says that the outbreak of war after the October 7 atrocities made it impossible for the government to formulate an agreement within the coalition on the highly delicate issue and pass the necessary legislation.

Since it is now impossible to formulate and pass a law of such a societally sensitive nature by the March 31 deadline, the state says, it asks the court to merely allow it to update the court on its efforts to draw up a suitable legislative framework for increasing ultra-Orthodox enlistment by March 24.

The Attorney General’s Office says that by that date the government should have details on emerging legislation to tackle the issue, and will then request another extension for the Knesset to pass a new law by June 30.

The Movement for Quality Government in Israel, one of the primary petitioners in the case, condemns the Attorney General’s Office for its response, saying it and the state were “once again trying to roll away this hot potato, which has been rolling around or 25 years, instead of deciding once and for all that there should be one conscription for everyone and one equal law for everyone, and not to try and find all types of illegal solutions which discriminate between different types of people and different types of blood.”

The High Court struck down legislation allowing for the blanket exemption of Haredi men from military service in 2017 as discriminatory, and gave the government one year to pass new legislation which would boost levels of ultra-Orthodox military enlistment. It has given the state innumerable extensions to that deadline due to elections and other reasons.