Posted on 06/25/24
| News Source: Times of Israel
The Attorney General’s Office instructs the IDF to immediately draft 3,000 Charedi yeshiva students beginning July 1, following the High Court of Justice’s ruling earlier Tuesday that the state is obligated to conscript such men into military service.
“The security establishment is obligated to act immediately to implement the ruling to draft yeshiva students who are obligated to perform military service,” Deputy Attorney General Gil Limon tells the army in a letter to its legal adviser.
There are currently some 63,000 Haredi yeshiva students who following today’s ruling are now obligated to perform military service, although the IDF told the court that it could realistically draft just 3,000 in the 2024 enlistment year which began in June.
Limon points out that the 3,000 Haredi men must be conscripted in addition to the average number of such men who have enlisted in recent years, which the state put at 1,800 in its submission to the court.
Additionally, he points out in his letter, which is also addressed to the Finance Ministry and Education Ministry, that under the terms of the ruling, they are banned from transferring any funds “directly or indirectly” to yeshivas who have until now received funding for students who study in lieu of military service.
Limon says this ban means that the funding cannot be included in other financial support programs enjoyed by yeshiva students, reflecting the Attorney General Office’s concerns that the government will seek to circumvent the ruling by reallocating the funds through different support programs.