Attorney-General Gali Baharav-Miara has called for renewed arrests and broader economic sanctions against military draft evaders, warning that weak enforcement against ultra-Orthodox men is undermining the draft, leaving potential recruits out of the army and producing unequal enforcement against the rest of the population.
The findings were released by the Attorney-General’s Office on Tuesday in a summary of an August 3 meeting chaired by Baharav-Miara to review enforcement of the draft obligation during the 2025 draft year. Representatives of the IDF, Defense Ministry, Finance Ministry, Justice Ministry, Israel Police, Population and Immigration Authority and other government bodies took part. The draft year covered July 1, 2025, through June 30, 2026.
Military officials said the gap is closely tied to who is actually arrested. Criminal proceedings generally begin after enforcement authorities detain a draft evader or the evader reports to a military facility, meaning fewer arrests translate into fewer prosecutions.
Baharav-Miara concluded that the current level of criminal enforcement does not meet what is required of the state.
According to the summary, military officials said the gap causes real harm to effective draft enforcement, leaving recruitment potential unrealized. It also results in unequal enforcement, including greater enforcement against other sectors of the population.
At the same time, the review found that haredi enlistment increased substantially over the past year.
Haredi enlistment up more than 50% in 2025-2026
A total of 4,298 haredi men enlisted during the 2025 draft year, which ran from July 1, 2025, through June 30, 2026, compared with 2,811 the previous year - an increase of about 53%.
Professional officials identified four factors that they said contributed to the increase: issuing draft orders across the eligible haredi population, stronger personal economic enforcement, criminal enforcement including arrests, and the expansion of military tracks adapted for haredi recruits.
Meaning, officials believe that enforcement, combined with appropriate service options, has been effective, and that reducing enforcement would weaken both recruitment and deterrence. This conclusion comes as the government has argued precisely the opposite over arrests.
In July, the Knesset passed a temporary law suspending arrest, investigation and prosecution proceedings against qualifying haredi yeshiva students who fail to report for military service. The government later told the High Court that Israel needed “haredi recruits, not haredi detainees,” arguing that arrests could reverse the gradual increase in enlistment and further inflame tensions with the haredi community.
The High Court froze the law a day after it passed and maintained that freeze following a hearing before a nine-justice panel on July 28. A final ruling has not yet been issued.
Attorney-General: State obligated to enforce law despite difficulties
The IDF and Israel Police told the meeting that proactive enforcement in haredi communities can lead to large-scale disturbances and requires substantial resources. Baharav-Miara said those difficulties did not remove the state's obligation to enforce the law equally.
The IDF and police have agreed to resume planned proactive operations against haredi draft evaders in the near future, according to the summary. They were also asked to submit by August 30 (next Sunday) an updated, detailed enforcement plan setting out the operations they intend to conduct and how resources will be allocated between different groups of draft evaders.
The review also calls for a rapid expansion of personal economic measures against people who have not regularized their status with the military.
Professional officials have repeatedly argued that sanctions which directly affect the individual - principally the loss of state benefits otherwise available - have particularly strong potential to encourage compliance with draft orders. The government has not adopted a comprehensive policy covering all such benefits, and work between ministries on additional measures remains ongoing.
The latest figures build on a series of increasingly forceful High Court rulings over haredi enlistment.
In June 2024, the court unanimously ruled that, without a law granting an exemption, the state had no authority to refrain from applying the law to haredi yeshiva students. In November 2025, it ordered the state to formulate effective and equal criminal and economic enforcement against draft evaders.
After finding that the ruling had still not been adequately implemented, the court went further in April, directing government ministries to move ahead with specific economic measures and requiring the police to assist military authorities with enforcement.
The question at the heart of the case is how the state enforces the law. Baharav-Miara's latest position is that the experience of the past year has supplied an answer: enlistment rose while enforcement and tailored military options expanded, but the continuing disparity in arrests and prosecutions means the draft obligation is still not being applied equally - and, according to the military officials involved, the IDF is failing to obtain soldiers it could otherwise recruit.