Police announce they will detain draft evaders, turn them over to IDF

Israel Police Commissioner Danny Levy issues new orders to police officers to detain draft dodgers and wait for the Military Police to pick them up, following IDF complaints that civilian law enforcement was hindering efforts against evasion.

“During a random encounter between a police officer and a deserter, the police officer will detain the deserter, report to the Military Police and wait with the detainee until a representative of the Military Police arrives, who is required to arrive within 30 minutes of the report,” the police say in a statement.

“If the representative of the Military Police does not arrive, the deserter will be released and the police officer will issue him a summons to report to the Military Police.”

The Knesset’s ultra-Orthodox parties react harshly to the new policy.

“How much further will the Attorney General degrade Israeli society into the depths of the abyss? And of all people, it is the Police Commissioner who will be forced to confront Torah scholars, and this is what he will be remembered for,” says Degel HaTorah chairman MK Moshe Gafni.

“At a time when acts of violence and crime are surging and murderers walk free in the streets, instead of the police properly handling national security, they decide to divert resources to pursue precious Torah scholars like common criminals. It is an absolute shame and disgrace that this is happening in the Jewish State,” says the Sephardic Shas party.

IDF officials claimed in a meeting with Attorney General Gali Baharav-Miara in January that the police have been systematically preventing the army from arresting draft evaders in ultra-Orthodox neighborhoods.

Last month, the High Court of Justice ordered the state to take “actual criminal proceedings” against Haredi draft dodgers, calling the police’s failure to arrest such people “unacceptable” and describing the situation as a “knowing and ongoing mass violation of the law.”