High Court orders government to explain shortfall of conscription orders to Haredi yeshiva students

The High Court of Justice issues a provisional order against the government’s 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 court order instructs the government to explain these failures to the court in a written statement by June 24. Provisional orders switch the burden of proof from the petitioners to the respondent — in this case, the defense minister and the government — and generally indicate that the court believes there to be some merit in the petition.

After the High Court ruled last year that there was no longer any legal framework for blanket military service exemptions for Haredi yeshiva students, the IDF sent out 18,915 initial draft orders to eligible ultra-Orthodox yeshiva students in several waves between July 2024 and March 2025.

Only two percent of those who received the orders actually enlisted, while there are some 70,000 haredi yeshiva students who are eligible for the draft but who do not serve.

The Movement for Quality Government in Israel, which petitioned the court over the state’s failure to draft Haredi yeshiva students, calls the provisional order “a significant step that obligates the state to explain why it is not implementing the rulings of the High Court, and the instructions of the law regarding the conscription of [ultra-Orthodox] yeshiva students.”

The army has stated that it is facing a manpower shortage and currently needs some 12,000 new soldiers — 7,000 of whom would be combat troops.