Police blocking army from arresting draft dodgers in Haredi areas, IDF says

Police have been systematically preventing the army from arresting draft evaders in ultra-Orthodox neighborhoods,  IDF officials claimed during a meeting held by Attorney General Gali Baharav-Miara last week.

According to the meeting’s brief published Sunday, IDF Military Police officers attested to “significant difficulties” when coordinating with police to arrest draft dodgers in neighborhoods with a large Haredi population.

“In practice, Military Police officers do not receive, as a general rule, clearance from Israel Police to carry out operations in Haredi or mixed neighborhoods,” the brief said, adding that any planned IDF operation against draft evaders requires prior approval from police in the area.

Army officials also noted that according to police policy, “members of the Haredi community detained in random arrests by the police — who turn out during the detention to be deserters or evaders — are in fact released.”

Rather than holding deserters in custody for half an hour so that Military Police can pick them up — as the agencies had previously agreed — police regularly free ultra-Orthodox evaders after instructing them to report to the army.

The claims were made during a discussion led by Baharav-Miara with senior army and police officials Wednesday. It was the attorney general’s 12th follow-up meeting on the enforcement of conscription as demanded by the High Court of Justice.

Police appeared to confirm aspects of the report in a response to a request for comment, saying that as a matter of policy, police send draft dodgers a summons to report to the Military Police for “further handling by army officials,” when the need arises.

“Requests made by army officials for police assistance will be examined, as is customary, with all considerations taken into account,” police added.

Police did not comment on the process of granting Military Police officers clearance to operate in Haredi neighborhoods.

In the discussion, police representatives stressed their need for additional manpower, claiming they require at least six new companies of Border Police troops in order to properly enforce measures against draft evasion.

The army estimates that 71,000 people are evading military service, 80 percent of them Haredim, according to data discussed in the meeting.

While there has been a slight rise in the rate of Haredim joining the army under current circumstances, it is “far from fulfilling the needs of the army or the value of equality,” the brief stated.

Army officials asserted that the bill to regulate exemptions for ultra-Orthodox students that is now moving through the Knesset creates a negative incentive for them to join the military, since the legislation will restore state funding for yeshivas, and advised stronger economic sanctions to enforce conscription.

Some 80,000 ultra-Orthodox men aged between 18 and 24 are currently believed to be eligible for military service, but have not enlisted. The IDF has said it urgently needs 12,000 recruits due to the strain on standing and reserve forces caused by the war against Hamas in Gaza and other military challenges.

For the past two years, the Haredi leadership has pushed for a law keeping its constituency out of the IDF, after the High Court ruled that decades-long blanket exemptions from army duty traditionally afforded to full-time Haredi yeshiva students were illegal. Since then, coalition lawmakers, dependent on Haredi support to keep them in government, have struggled to find a formulation that could win ultra-Orthodox backing while also meeting demands for the community to share in the burden of mandatory military service.