From the Liveblog of
Sunday, April 26, 2026
Haredi leaders assail ‘oppressive’ court’s order to sanction draft evaders
Sam Sokol is the Times of Israel's political correspondent. 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"
Ultra-Orthodox politicians slam the High Court of Justice’s ruling requiring the state to impose financial sanctions on ultra-Orthodox draft evaders, arguing that Israel is becoming progressively less Jewish as a result of the court’s decisions on conscription.
The ruling is a harsh “blow to the heart of the Jewish identity of the State of Israel,” declares United Torah Judaism chairman Yitzhak Goldknopf, demanding that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu take “immediate” action to pass legislation exempting yeshiva students from conscription.
The court ordered the government to prepare a number of sanctions, including withdrawing daycare and transit subsidies as well as municipal tax discounts.
The decision “to impose heavy and discriminatory sanctions against Torah scholars” marks “a severe crossing of a red line,” says Goldknopf, calling it “inconceivable that those who dedicate their lives to Torah study should be defined as criminals and subjected to punishments.”
Insisting that “no sanction will stop the voice of the Torah,” Goldknopf declares that yeshiva students “will continue to study Torah with devotion, persistence, and pride, just as they have throughout the generations, even under threats and dangers.
“I call upon the prime minister and the heads of the parties who signed the coalition agreement, in which they committed to regulating the status of Torah scholars, to demonstrate leadership and responsibility and to stand by their commitment,” he says. “It is unacceptable that harm to Torah scholars should be allowed on your watch. You must regulate their status immediately.” He adds that “we expect the prime minister to act immediately to halt this deterioration and to pass a law immediately, as he committed to do.”
While UTJ’s Degel HaTorah faction has largely been supportive of the coalition’s bill exempting most yeshiva students from military service, which is now making its way through the Knesset, Goldknopf’s Agudat Yisrael faction has actually opposed it because it retains some sanctions for draft evaders.
Deputy Communications Minister Yisrael Eichler, a member of Goldknopf’s faction, accuses the “dictatorial” High Court of “declaring a governmental war against the children of Israel and their parents living below the poverty line.”
“Their new decision proves the conspiracy of predatory steps against the lifestyle of the Haredi public and against the faith of the children of Israel,” Eichler alleges, asserting that God himself “will frustrate” the counsel of “the oppressors.”
Degel HaTorah chairman MK Moshe Gafni states: “The State of Israel is gradually losing, step by step, its identity as a Jewish and democratic state.”
“From decision to decision, from hearing to hearing and from ruling to ruling, the High Court is acting consistently and systematically to harm Torah students and reduce their place in the state. We will not lend a hand to this. Torah scholars are the foundation of our existence as a people, and we will continue to study Torah and carry on our shoulders the spiritual defense of the People of Israel in every situation and under any condition,” he pledges.
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