AG’s office says Haredim comprise 80% of draft evaders, government must up enforcement

By Sam Sokol 18 August 2026, 8:34 pm

1 Edit

Sam Sokol is a former political correspondent at The Times of Israel. 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"

Attorney General Gali Baharav-Miara attends a committee meeting at the Knesset in Jerusalem on June 9, 2026. (Yonatan Sindel/Flash90)

Ultra-Orthodox Israelis still comprise 80 percent of all draft evaders in the country, the Attorney General’s Office announces, despite an increase in the number of ultra-Orthodox draftees enlisting in the IDF.

The office calls for the state to strengthen its enforcement of draft orders, including by arresting draft evaders.

In a statement summarizing a discussion on the issue held between military, legal and police officials, the office of Attorney General Gali Baharav-Miara states that “the phenomenon of draft evasion is still widespread” even though increased enforcement, sanctions and the establishment of special service tracks geared toward Haredim have boosted conscription.

“In order to continue reducing the phenomenon of draft evasion and respond to the urgent security need to grow the army, it is necessary to expand the basket of personal economic enforcement measures as soon as possible, and the army and police must also return to carrying out proactive operations and arrests against evasion from all segments of the population,” the statement adds.

In April, the High Court of Justice ordered the government to explain its failure to issue enough conscription orders to ultra-Orthodox yeshiva students to meet the needs of the IDF, and its failure to enforce the orders it has issued. The police subsequently announced in May that new orders had been issued to officers to detain draft dodgers and wait for the Military Police to pick them up.

While Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu later tried to distance himself from efforts to exempt yeshiva students from military conscription, a key Haredi interest demanded by his ultra-Orthodox political allies, his Likud party recently helped push through a pair of laws declaring Torah study a “foundational value” of the Jewish people and freezing arrests of Haredi draft evaders.

The implementation of the law banning the arrest of ultra-Orthodox draft dodgers, however, was immediately frozen by the High Court of Justice.