AG to Netanyahu: Enforcement against IDF draft-dodgers must be expanded

Attorney General Gali Baharav-Miara asks Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to increase enforcement against military draft-dodgers, given that there is a high level of draft evasion at present and that the number of conscripts is not sufficient for the needs of the IDF.

The attorney general is referring to the tens of thousands of ultra-Orthodox men who became subject to the draft following a 2024 ruling by the High Court of Justice, and the issuance by the IDF of some 80,000 draft orders to those men in July this year.

In a letter sent to the prime minister yesterday, Baharav-Miara also points out that officials in the defense establishment have said that dealing with this draft evasion phenomenon “requires expanding the basket of personal administrative sanctions” which can be used against the draft dodgers, something she says is entirely within the power of the government.

“The situation in which the burden of reserve [military] duty is heavy and the security establishment has said that it needs to extend the period of service for regular conscripts, but in which the government is not taking the measures it can to increase enforcement for obligatory conscription, constitutes a severe injury to equality which cannot be legally justified,” the attorney general tells Netanyahu.

Enforcement of draft orders against ultra-Orthodox yeshiva students who are not obligated to enlist has become a major political headache for Netanyahu, with UTJ quitting the coalition over the issue and Shas leaving the government and quitting its coalition roles but not yet pulling out of the coalition.