Israel faces tough choices over haredi draft exemptions, legal expert warns

Legal expert Shlomit Ravitsky Tur-Paz warns that Israel’s proposed law regarding the Haredi community could reinforce societal divisions and worsen long-term challenges for the economy and the military.

Regardless of what happens with the current bill to regulate conscription for the haredi (ultra-Orthodox) community, a situation in which an entire population group, which is expected to grow, remains on the sidelines and does not sufficiently contribute to society and the economy, is untenable, said lawyer Shlomit Ravitsky Tur-Paz.

In an interview with The Jerusalem Post On Thursday, Ravitsky Tur-Paz, an expert at the Israel Democracy Institute, exposed the fault line in the so-called “incentives” in the bill presented by the coalition.

These incentives can be easily manipulated, she said. More importantly, they would have the opposite effect, entrenching ultra-Orthodox society even more deeply in its isolation.

“Our grievances are with the state. It is the body that has created a situation in which the ultra-Orthodox community exists in its own autonomous bubble, where it receives all rights but does not exercise all its functions and is disconnected.”

“The state must return to this issue; it is its responsibility” to be the regulatory authority, said Ravitsky Tur-Paz.

The problem, she continued, is not a question of religiosity – it is a question of national collectivism. Until ultra-Orthodox society accepts that “Israel’s current situation is not sustainable,” until the government uses its own power for this cause, reality will not change, she warned.

For decades, existing frameworks have allowed broad project deferrals for ultra-Orthodox yeshiva students, but they have repeatedly been found to violate principles of equality.

In 2017, a landmark ruling by the High Court of Justice invalidated the existing agreement as unconstitutional and ordered the Knesset to legislate on a new model within a year – an instruction that was not respected.

No legal basis to exempt yeshiva students

When the status quo finally expired on June 30, 2023, Israel was left without any binding legal basis for exempting yeshiva students, and the court repeatedly pressed the government to explain why it was not issuing conscription notices or enforcing conscription equally.

The government, facing intense pressure from its ultra-Orthodox coalition partners, tried to buy time with temporary measures, promising future legislation.

A year later, in June 2024 – after October 7 and the start of the Israel-Hamas war – a panel of nine judges from the High

The Court ruled unequivocally that no statutory exemption framework existed, ordering the state to conscript the ultra-Orthodox under standard conscription law and reducing funding that effectively subsidized evasion.

The decision came just as the government was circulating the first versions of new legislation built around sharply reduced enlistment targets and weak enforcement mechanisms.

But these proposals, critics say, were all tailored to the needs of the coalition rather than military realities. Enforcement has remained limited, enlistment rates have remained low, and negotiations over a lasting bill have dragged on this year, with several versions collapsing under political pressure.

In November, another version of the bill was presented by Likud MK and Chairman of the Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee Boaz Bismuth. Like its predecessors, it is built around modest recruiting targets, a renewed exemption structure, and a tiered system of personal and institutional sanctions.

According to its explanatory notes, the bill aims to both increase ultra-Orthodox participation in national service and preserve exemptions for full-time yeshiva students – two goals that cannot be fully reconciled.

The omission of biometric verification tools, present in previous proposals, further limits the state’s ability to determine who is actually studying full-time, suggesting that the law is designed primarily to recruit those outside of the core yeshiva system.

The bill provides a broad “clean slate” upon enactment, lifting existing sanctions and enforcement orders related to draft fraud. Ravitsky Tur-Paz noted that this alone indicates that institutions will be given some room to maneuver without the need to reform any of the fundamental issues.

“Where else does this happen, where first you get money and then you show that you did what you were supposed to do for it? she asked, saying that if an institution fails to meet enrollment quotas and is denied government funding, it has other options, such as recruiting overseas.

Institutional sanctions will not always be felt directly by the individual student and will only remain in effect until the student reaches age 26.

Sanctions against an individual are expected to include travel bans, driver’s license restrictions, loss of public service hiring preference and revocation of certain tax benefits. While these sanctions are neither practical nor comfortable, they further keep students aged 18 to 26 within the confines of the yeshiva – and out of the military or the workforce.

In fact, Ravitsky Tur-Paz said that if these sanctions are implemented, “they will be what every yeshiva leader dreams of.”

After one year of under-enrollment, additional sanctions will take effect, including loss of eligibility for subsidized housing, child care discounts, National Insurance Fund benefits, and public transportation privileges.

If military enlistment quotas are not met for several years, additional financial sanctions and review mechanisms will also come into play.

Under the proposal, the state would set annual enlistment goals starting at 4,800 recruits, which would gradually increase.

Coalition officials have presented this framework as likely, on paper, to bring about half of each ultra-Orthodox age group into some form of “recognized service framework” within five years. Yet these frameworks include non-military alternatives – civilian security roles and exemption pathways – meaning the proposal comes nowhere near a 50% ultra-Orthodox enlistment in the Israeli military.

The quotas themselves are far below the sector’s potential: when the opt-out clause expired in 2023, around 100,000 ultra-Orthodox men were eligible for conscription. The first year’s target therefore covers only about 5% of this pool, compared to an enlistment rate of about 88% among other Jewish men in Israel.

The Israeli army has warned that its needs far exceed what the bill provides. While the 4,800 target was initially based on the Army’s absorption capacity in 2024, the Army has since told the court that such a limitation would not exist after mid-2026.

The bill nevertheless maintains its low quotas. A built-in “safety net” further lowers operational targets by allowing a 25% shortfall in the first year before sanctions are applied, reducing the need to approximately 3,600 recruits, and even fewer after deducting civil security participants.

The proposal also authorizes an advisory committee to further reduce the number of participants, giving the political level broad discretion to weaken the bill’s agenda.

At the same time, the criteria for determining who is considered “haredi” are broad. Anyone who attended an ultra-Orthodox high school for two years can be included in the goal calculation, even if they no longer identify as ultra-Orthodox.

The recruits themselves do not need to be young or combat-ready. The plan allows enlistment up to age 26, meaning many recruits will be older, married and placed in noncombat roles closer to home. This stands in stark contrast to the IDF’s immediate needs.

Another noteworthy point is that the 26-year exemption will allow yeshiva students to defer their service until they automatically become exempt. Economists have warned that this locks young men into years of non-employment, leaving them in a poor position to join the job market.

The bill also prohibits job training during the deferral period, further limiting long-term earning potential.
Without significant changes in haredi society, which is growing exponentially, Israel will not be able to maintain its status as a first-world country with an economy and military to match, Ravitsky Tur-Paz warned.

“Israel has no choice. It must make difficult decisions.”