Israel’s Supreme Court began hearings on Sunday morning on a contentious issue that has long exempted ultra-Orthodox Jewish men from serving in the Israel Defense Forces. At the end of the hearings, the court could issue a final order for the state to begin conscription of Haredi men, a move that could have dramatic social and political consequences.
Two issues are at the heart of the hearing
The hearing focused on two issues: first, whether the government could continue to exclude Haredi men from recruiting into the IDF, and second, whether the government could continue to fund Haredi yeshivas for military-age students who are no longer exempt from IDF service.
These two issues were first heard on March 28. After that hearing, the High Court ruled that the government must begin conscription of Haredi men and could no longer provide funding to Haredi students whose exemptions had expired. But the ruling was only provisional, and the central issue at Sunday’s hearing was whether to make the interim order permanent.
Doron Taubman, a lawyer representing the government, argued that the government was not disputing the fact that it was legally required to conscript Haredi men and that withholding them was illegal, but that the Ministry of Defense had the prerogative to decide when and how to enlist these Haredi men in the IDF and that the courts should not interfere.
On the issue of funding, Taubman agreed that yeshivas should not receive funding for Haredi men who ignored conscription, but Taubman argued that although the law exempting Haredi men had expired, they had not actually been called up and therefore were not in violation of conscription, so the government could continue to fund them.
The case was heard by a nine-judge bench led by Interim Supreme Court Justice Uzi Fogelman. The judges interrupted Taubman multiple times and continued to ask him many questions. On the issue of general immunity, the judges questioned Taubman about whether the Ministry of Defense could continue to postpone the immunity indefinitely. The Attorney General’s Office wrote in a court filing on Thursday that the IDF is prepared to conscript 3,000 Haredi men into the IDF by the end of 2024, and the judges questioned Taubman about whether, for example, the Ministry of Defense has the legal authority to refrain from doing so.
In 1998, the Israeli Supreme Court ruled, based on the famous “Rubinstein Principles,” that the government does not have the authority to exempt entire groups from serving in the IDF, as this constitutes discrimination. Since then, many laws have been proposed to regulate this issue. The most recent law, which gave Haredi men the right to postpone military service every year until they received a final exemption at age 26, expired on July 1, 2023. On June 25, the government decided to enact a new law by April 1, 2024. With this decision having expired, there is no longer any legal basis for exemptions.
