Attorney General Gali Baharav-Miara submitted a detailed update to the High Court (Bagatz) on Wednesday, laying out the scale of draft evasion in Israel and calling for sweeping new measures against those who refuse to serve.
According to the filing, around 110,000 Israelis currently liable for military service are "violating the law" by failing to enlist. Of that total, approximately 60% are members of the chareidi community who received draft notices in the past two years, another 21% are estimated to be chareidi as well, and the remainder come from the general population.
The attorney general's office sharply criticized the state's own enforcement efforts, writing explicitly that the government is not doing everything in its power to combat the phenomenon and that the resources and enforcement tools at its disposal are "far from exhausted."
The filing pointed to several failures: a lack of equal enforcement, delays in carrying out arrest operations inside Israel due to coordination problems between the military police and the Israel Police, and enforcement actions that often end with only a handful of arrests or with draft evaders released on the spot.
"The state is not exhausting the enforcement tools available to it, and in order to combat the phenomenon of evasion, it is proposed that the court consider issuing additional operational directives for the denial of economic benefits to evaders," the attorney general's office stated.
