Ahead of a proposed 90-day arrest freeze for yeshiva students, the IDF warns that the country is on its way to 90,000 Haredi draft dodgers
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Ahead of a proposed 90-day arrest freeze for yeshiva students, the IDF warns that the country is on its way to 90,000 Haredi draft dodgers
04:16 AM • July 01 2026 IDT
Between January 16 and June 11, 2026, 165 conscription-eligible Israelis declared deserters or draft dodgers were arrested in proactive military police operations, but only 16 were from the ultra-Orthodox community, Attorney General Gali Baharav-Miara told the High Court of Justice on Tuesday. Another 81 deserters were detained by police in random encounters and transferred to the military police.
The data was submitted to the High Court in the attorney general's response to petitions demanding the enforcement of a landmark ruling that mandates the enlistment of ultra-Orthodox men and imposes sanctions on draft dodgers. According to the figures, 294 indictments were filed between January and mid-June against draft dodgers who exceeded the criminal threshold. The military prosecution estimates that 32 of them are ultra-Orthodox. Meanwhile, some 80,000 ultra-Orthodox men have not enlisted but do not yet meet the 540-day non-appearance threshold required for criminal prosecution.
As of May 10, Baharav-Miara noted, Israel had 92,080 designated conscripts who had been declared draft dodgers or issued an Order 12 – a desertion notice that becomes an arrest warrant after a month. According to Israel Defense Forces sources, approximately 80 percent of them are ultra-Orthodox.
"Regarding proactive enforcement against draft dodgers, military officials reported improved cooperation with the police, which will enable the army to carry out proactive operations, including arrests, in the near future," the attorney general's response stated. The agreement stipulates that proactive military police activity will only take place after operational coordination and approval from the local police station, and only if the station's routine manpower allows. Police officials emphasized that no assistance would be provided without prior planning and that the initiative must come from the IDF.
Meanwhile, the Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee discussed an initiative today to freeze the arrests of deserting yeshiva students for three months. Under the proposal, all arrests, investigations or enforcement proceedings against designated conscripts who are Torah students would be halted for 90 days. A yeshiva student would be defined as someone studying at a yeshiva for at least 45 hours a week.
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The defense minister would compile the list of eligible yeshivas based on criteria anchored in regulations and approved by the committee, taking into account recommendations from the Council of Yeshivas. If an inspector finds repeated non-attendance of 20 percent or more at a yeshiva, the head of the institution would receive a warning; a recurrence would lead to the yeshiva's removal from the list. The bill remains vague on the number of inspectors, stating it would be determined by the defense minister and approved by the committee.
Because temporary orders are automatically extended during an election period until the end of the first three months of the next Knesset's term, the proposed 90-day freeze would in practice last for at least six months.
Committee chairman MK Boaz Bismuth (Likud) said during the session that "as Cabinet Secretary Yossi Fuchs noted in his letter to the committee, the professional stance of officials on the ground ... is that a continued arrest policy could harm conscription efforts and reduce the actual number of conscripts. Arrests create the opposite of the desired effect." Bismuth added: "Our responsibility is to examine results, not just intentions. When reality shows that arrests deter young ultra-Orthodox men from serving, we must ask whether this approach serves the national interest."
Brig. Gen. Shai Tayeb, the head of the Manpower Directorate's Planning and Administration Division, countered that "enforcement tools, including arrests and imprisonment, are part of our ability to implement the Security Service Law." While he claimed an increase in ultra-Orthodox enlistment – predicting the number would pass 3,500 by the end of the year – Tayeb warned that "we are on our way to 90,000 draft dodgers."
In response, Jerusalem Affairs Minister Meir Porush called the figure "a tremendous achievement on this table, tremendous." Tayeb noted that a temporary order alone would not help, adding, "It could have negative effects. I think it fails to fulfill its purpose and compromises certain interests."
The committee's legal counsel criticized the proposal on Monday, writing that it "attempts to create a bypass route designed to circumvent the need for a legislative arrangement to regulate the status of yeshiva students." The counsel warned that the arrangement would legitimize future draft dodgers, "providing them with prior immunity and granting them protection against criminal proceedings."
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