High Court hears petitions demanding government draft tens of thousands of Haredim

The High Court of Justice begins a hearing on petitions demanding that the government enforce the law for national conscription and draft tens of thousands of ultra-Orthodox yeshiva students who are eligible for military service but have failed to enlist.

In June 2023, the clauses in the Law for Security Service allowing for blanket military service exemptions for ultra-Orthodox yeshiva students expired, and in June 2024 the High Court ruled that the government was therefore obligated to begin drafting them.

Only few students have enlisted since that time, however, and government watchdog groups filed petitions asking the court to order the government to enforce the law by drafting those who have not enlisted and issuing sanctions against those who refuse.

The hearing takes place as the government is drafting a new military conscription law designed to regulate exemptions for yeshiva students and, according to the coalition, increase ultra-Orthodox enlistment. The opposition has asserted that the new draft bill will allow mass draft evasion by Haredi young men to continue.

“We expect the court to ignore this illegal background noise, to enforce its previous ruling unanimously, and to order the state unequivocally to work towards equal and immediate conscription, and to take sanctions against all draft evaders,” says the Movement for Quality Government in Israel, one of the petitioners.