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AG’s office to High Court: State not doing enough to crack down on Haredi draft evaders
In a filing to the High Court of Justice on Tuesday, the Attorney General’s Office asserted that while the IDF has significantly increased efforts to enlist members of the ultra-Orthodox community, including by sending out 54,000 conscription orders over the last month and substantially increasing enforcement against draft dodgers, it was “essential” that the state do more to increase sanctions and deny more benefits to evaders.
“This issue, which is the responsibility of the government, has not yet been addressed,” the Attorney General’s Office stated.
Responding to a petition calling on the state to comply with a 2024 court ruling and recruit members of the previously exempt Haredi community, the state’s filing said that “the authorities must act, using the tools at their disposal…as well as adding additional enforcement tools.”
Last June, the High Court ruled that the government must draft ultra-Orthodox yeshiva students into the military, since there was no longer any legal framework to continue the decades-long practice of granting them blanket exemptions from service.
According to the Attorney General’s Office, it is critical to “expand personal enforcement measures” and deny economic benefits to draft evaders because the powers available to the army are currently “insufficient” to fill its ranks “in accordance with current security needs.”
Such measures, which have been suggested to the defense establishment by the Attorney General’s Office, Finance Ministry and other government ministries over the past several months, “are within the authority of various government bodies” and “can be promoted immediately, without the need for legislation,” the filing added — noting that Defense Minister Israel Katz “and the government have not yet held a discussion to examine the possibilities for expanding the basket of enforcement tools.”
Despite tens of thousands of enlistment orders being sent to Haredi men, the IDF has fallen short of its goal of 4,800 recruits during the 2024-2025 draft cycle, with only 1,539 out of 24,000........
© The Times of Israel
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