Protest group assails coalition MKs as High Court set to hear petitions against law freezing Haredi draft dodgers

The Brothers and Sisters in Arms anti-government protest group puts up banners assailing lawmakers who supported a controversial law passed earlier this month that froze the arrests of ultra-Orthodox draft dodgers, thereby legitimizing continued mass Haredi non-enlistment.

“Voted against IDF soldiers,” says each banner next to a photo of a coalition lawmaker.

The action comes ahead of a High Court hearing today before an expanded panel of judges on petitions that have urged it to strike down the law.

The hearing, before nine justices, will be broadcast live. The court has already temporarily frozen the implementation of the law, and Attorney General Gali Baharav-Miara has urged the court to block it completely, arguing that it creates “a selective and discriminatory criminal enforcement regime, which is diametrically opposed to the fundamental constitutional principle of equality before the law.”

Several petitions filed against the law immediately after its passage argue that the legislation is discriminatory since it bans arrests for ultra-Orthodox yeshiva students who have failed to obey conscription orders, while allowing arrests for non-Haredi draft dodgers to continue.

The law bans arrests, investigations and enforcement measures against draft dodgers enrolled in yeshiva study until November 30, but will actually extend to February 2027 due to legal reasons tied to the upcoming elections.

Some 72,000 ultra-Orthodox men aged 18 to 24 are currently eligible for military service, but have ignored conscription orders. The IDF has said repeatedly in recent months that it urgently needs 12,000 new recruits amid the ongoing multifront conflict.

IDF Chief of Staff Lt. Gen. Eyal Zamir has called the law “inconceivable,” saying it is “clearly and unequivocally inconsistent with the IDF’s needs” and amounts to “providing mass exemptions from prosecution.”