From the Liveblog of
Sunday, January 4, 2026
‘Constitutional crisis’: Deputy AG says government flouting court order on Haredi sanctions
Add ToI as a Preferred Source on GoogleSam 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"
Deputy Attorney General Gil Limon accuses the government of contravening a High Court order to draw up new sanctions against Haredi draft evaders, calling its refusal to do so a “constitutional crisis.”
“The High Court required the formulation of the policy by today. This constitutes a violation of the ruling,” the Ynet news site quotes Limon as telling today’s cabinet meeting, following the expiration of a court-ordered deadline to present tougher penalties for the draft evaders.
In mid-November, the court gave the government 45 days to draw up effective enforcement measures, including criminal proceedings, against ultra-Orthodox yeshiva students who have refused to comply with IDF conscription orders.
In a unanimous decision, the court accused the government and state agencies of having almost “totally shirked” their responsibilities to enforce the law when it came to Haredi draft dodgers, which the court said constituted selective enforcement, as well as a violation of the state’s obligation to enforce its laws.
The court instructed the government to begin criminal proceedings against ultra-Orthodox men already deemed legally to be draft dodgers as quickly as possible, and to draw up, by January 4, civil and economic enforcement measures deemed to have a high chance of success against all those refusing to comply with conscription orders.
In response, Cabinet Secretary Yossi Fuchs reportedly says that “the government’s policy is to approve the conscription law,” a reference to the bill regulating Haredi conscription and exemptions currently being debated in the Knesset Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee.
Limon also slams the government, separately, for advancing a highly controversial bill to establish a politically appointed probe into the failures surrounding the October 7, 2023, Hamas-led attack instead of a state commission of inquiry into the matter.
According to Ynet, Limon tells ministers that that bill “establishes a mechanism with full political control over the composition of the committee and the subjects of the investigation” and that the government is “turning the investigation into a political event.”
The Times of Israel Community.