AG calls for conscription of all draft-age Haredi men starting this summer

Calling the enlistment of yeshiva students “an essential security need,” Attorney General Gali Baharav-Miara urges the IDF to begin sending conscription orders to all draft-age ultra-Orthodox men at the start of the next recruitment cycle in July.

The High Court’s provisional order from April demanding to know why the government has failed to enforce enlistment orders constitutes a “red flag,” the Attorney General’s Office declares, arguing that the current scope of Haredi recruitment is “far from meeting the needs of the army.”

In a document summarizing a recent meeting with senior military and civilian officials, the Attorney General’s Office insists that as long as a new law regulating the status of yeshiva students is not enacted, “from a legal perspective, the state is legally obligated to act according to existing law, and to implement the general conscription obligation in an equal and uniform manner in relation to the entire population.”

As such, Baharav-Miara welcomes IDF Chief of Staff Lt. Gen. Eyal Zamir’s recent instructions to the IDF Personnel Directorate “to significantly increase the scope of conscription orders for members of the ultra-Orthodox public and to increase enforcement against evaders generally.”

Out of 18,915 Haredim who received initial draft orders since July 2024, around 319 have enlisted, while 2,521 who have ignored multiple draft orders have been sent immediate call-up orders requiring them to show up at an induction center within 48 hours or be declared a draft evader.

Of these, 964 have been declared draft evaders, a number expected to rise significantly in the coming weeks, the Attorney General’s Office states.

The consequences of being declared a draft evader include receiving a “no exit order” — being barred from leaving the country. In addition, during any encounter with the police, the draft dodger can be arrested.