Petition against IDF stint-lengthening law claims Haredim getting preferential treatment

A petition has been filed to the High Court of Justice against a law passed by the Knesset this month lengthening mandatory military service from 30 to 32 months, arguing that the measure constitutes unlawful discrimination against those serving in the army since the government has failed to draft over 70,000 ultra-Orthodox men into any service at all.

The Movement for Quality Government in Israel, which filed the petition, argues that in extending the period of mandatory service, the government is further increasing the burden of military service on those who do enlist while at the same time, with another law, trying to make it easier for ultra-Orthodox men to avoid enlisting.

The organization is referring to legislation passed two days before the military service extension law, which barred the IDF and police from arresting ultra-Orthodox draft dodgers for a seven-month period. The High Court immediately froze implementation of that law, however, and it seems likely to be struck down.

The Movement for Quality Government notes in its petition that the new law will affect soldiers who enlisted from July 2024 onwards, some of whom were just several months away from being released from military service before the new law was passed. Those enlisting from now until June 2029 will also be required to perform the extra two months of service.

The organization argues that the legislation freezing the arrests of Haredi draft dodgers and the service extension law must be addressed as a whole, noting that they were discussed jointly at the Knesset Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee in the same hearing.

This “creates a reality in which the state is removing enforcement from one group, and increasing the burden on the other group,” the petition says.

The organization argues further that this reality “exacerbates the discrimination” between those who serve and those who do not and harms the principle of equality before the law.

“The State of Israel is saying to the soldier who has returned from two years of war on several fronts: ‘Carry on for another two months.’ And to the person who has never reported for service, it says: ‘Don’t worry, no one will touch you,'” says Stav Livne Lahav of the MFQG.

“One person’s blood does not have greater value than another’s, and there is no obligation that applies to one part of the public while exempting another. Equality in sharing the burden is not a slogan — it is a legal obligation that the Supreme Court already established three decades ago.”