High Court concludes debate on haredi IDF conscription in high-stakes hearing
A poll published by Army Radio on Sunday, conducted by Manu Geva's Midgam Institute, found that 81% of haredim supported the view that haredim should not join the IDF at all.
The High Court of Justice on Sunday held a high-stakes hearing on the contentious issue of the long-standing exemption of ultra-Orthodox men from IDF service. The hearing could lead the court to give a final order to the state to begin drafting haredi men, a move that could have dramatic social and political ramifications.
The two issues at the heart of the hearing
The hearing centered on two issues: First, whether or not the government could continue to avoid recruiting haredi men into the IDF, after the expiration last year of the law enabling them to do so; and second, whether or not the government could continue providing funding for haredi yeshivot for students of military age who no longer had a legal exemption from IDF service.
These two issues were first heard on March 28. The High Court ruled then that the state could no longer continue to exempt haredi men as a group from service, and that it could no longer provide funding for haredi students whose exemption had expired. However, this ruling was temporary, and the question at the heart of the hearing on Sunday was whether to turn this temporary order into a permanent one. The petitioners in the case included a wide variety of individual civilians and civil organizations, such as the Movement for Quality Government in Israel.The High Court of Justice ruled in 1998 that the government did not have the authority to exempt an entire group from service in the IDF, as this amounted to discrimination. A number of laws have been proposed since then to regulate the issue. The most recent law, which granted haredi men the ability to delay their service annually until receiving a final exemption at age 26, expired on July 1, 2023. The government on June 25 decided to give itself until April 1, 2024, to come up with a new law. With this decision having expired, there is no longer a legal basis for the exemption.Adv. Doron Taubman, representing the government, argued that it did not dispute the fact that it was legally required to draft haredi men and that to refrain from doing so was illegal. However, Taubman argued that the Defense Ministry had the prerogative to decide when and how to enlist these haredi men into the IDF and that the court should not intervene.On the issue of funding, Taubman agreed that yeshivot should not receive funding for haredi men who ignored draft orders. However, even though the law exempting haredi men expired, they had not actually been summoned yet and therefore were not violating any draft orders. The government could thus continue issuing the funding, Taubman argued.
Taubman is a private lawyer and he was hired by the government after the Attorney-General’s Office, which is the government’s statutory representative in court, refused to back the government’s positions.Hearing was in front of an enlarged bench
The hearing was held in a packed courtroom and in front of an enlarged bench comprising nine justices. Some of the exchanges between the attorneys and the judges were heated, and at a certain point Likud MK Tally Gotliv, who sat in on the hearing but was not a side to it, attempted to interrupt the judges and make an argument. Some statements by Taubman were met with incredulous laughter by the crowd.
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