Police force’s top rabbi says draft evaders won’t be arrested when filing police complaints

The Israel Police will no longer arrest Haredi draft evaders who come to police stations to file complaints, the force’s senior rabbi tells Radio Kol Barama, an ultra-Orthodox radio station.

“The police are not against the Haredi public. The police commissioner has ordered that anyone who comes to a police station to file a complaint will not be arrested for desertion… Woe unto us if there is a disconnect between the police and the Haredi public,” chief police rabbi Commander Rami Brachyahu says.

Several draft evaders were arrested on Friday, including one man who had been detained after he went to file a police complaint. In a statement that day, the office of Deputy Minister Yisrael Eichler (United Torah Judaism) said that the man was released after Eichler and his staff had reached out to “senior police and government officials” about the matter.

Asked about Brachyahu’s comments, a spokesman for Eichler tells The Times of Israel that Haredi politicians had “made clear to the police what common sense dictates: you cannot arrest a person who came to file a complaint; otherwise tens of thousands of people will potentially become victims of crime.”

Following harsh criticism from both the military and the High Court of Justice, the Israel Police announced this month that Commissioner Danny Levy had issued new orders to officers to detain draft dodgers during chance encounters and wait for the Military Police to pick them up.

The police do not immediately reply to a request to confirm that Brachyahu’s comments represent official policy.