7,000 strictly religious Jewish men must immediately be drafted into the Israeli army. Any further delay or restriction of this order would be unlawful, Israeli Attorney General Gali Baharav-Miara told leading representatives from the judiciary, politics and the military, according to Israeli media reports (Wednesday).
The state must comply with the legal requirements and obligations to the highest court, which recently ruled that there was no legal basis for a general exemption from military service for ultra-Orthodox Jews (Haredim).
It further called on the army to “take all possible measures to ensure the enlistment of those who have failed to report for duty, including the use of arrest warrants, as is the case with the general population.” According to media reports, the rate of those who obey the call-up order has been just over five percent in recent months.
After the dismissal of Defense Minister Yoav Gallant at the beginning of November, opposition leader Jair Lapid, among others, called on Gallant’s successor, former Foreign Minister Israel Katz, not to capitulate to pressure from the strict religious Jewish coalition parties and to press ahead with the drafting of Haredim.
