Police rabbi says Haredi draft evaders filing complaints at stations won’t be detained

The Israel Police will no longer arrest Haredi draft evaders who come to police stations to file complaints, the force’s senior rabbi told the ultra-Orthodox radio station Radio Kol Barama on Sunday, after one man was detained under these circumstances.

“The police are not against the Haredi public. The police commissioner ordered that anyone who comes to a police station to file a complaint will not be arrested for desertion… Woe unto us if there is a disconnect between the police and the Haredi public,” chief police rabbi Commander Rami Brachyahu told.

The police did not immediately reply to a request to confirm that Brachyahu’s comments represented official policy.

Several draft evaders were arrested on Friday, including one man who had been detained after he went to file a police complaint on an unrelated issue. In a statement that day, the office of Deputy Minister Yisrael Eichler (United Torah Judaism) said that the man was released after Eichler and his staff had reached out to “senior police and government officials” about the matter.

Asked about Brachyahu’s comments, a spokesman for Eichler told The Times of Israel that Haredi politicians had “made clear to the police what common sense dictates: you cannot arrest a person who came to file a complaint, otherwise tens of thousands of people will potentially become victims of crime.”

Refraining from arresting draft evaders during encounters at police stations appears to be a step back from a new, tougher policy announced by law enforcement earlier this month.

Following harsh criticism from both the military and the High Court of Justice, the Israel Police announced on May 18 that Commissioner Danny Levy had issued new orders to officers to detain draft dodgers during chance encounters and wait for the Military Police to pick them up.

This step came after the High Court of Justice ordered the state to take “actual criminal proceedings” against Haredi draft dodgers, calling the police’s failure to arrest such people “unacceptable” and describing the situation as a “knowing and ongoing mass violation of the law.”

IDF officials claimed in a meeting with Attorney General Gali Baharav-Miara in January that police have been systematically preventing the army from arresting draft evaders in ultra-Orthodox neighborhoods. A recent Times of Israel investigation found that law enforcement has taken little action against those working to circumvent the efforts to enforce conscription, such as the hardline Jerusalem Faction.

Over the past two years, the military has sent out tens of thousands of enlistment orders to members of the ultra-Orthodox community whose exemptions from mandatory service in the Israel Defense Forces were revoked under a 2024 High Court ruling. Most have ignored the orders, leading to large numbers of young men being classified as evaders and being subject to arrest or other sanctions.

While the military has made no move to arrest all 80,000 ultra-Orthodox men aged 18-24 believed to be eligible for service, the detainment of even a small number has ignited anger and occasionally violence in the country’s Haredi enclaves.

The IDF recently warned of a steadily worsening shortage of combat soldiers in the standing military, high burnout among troops, and fears that the reserve army could “collapse” if necessary legislation is not advanced by the government.

Haredi politicians have been harshly critical of efforts to strengthen enforcement, with Degel HaTorah chairman Moshe Gafni last week instructing local party representatives on regional councils across the country to halt all cooperation with police in protest.

In a statement on Sunday evening, Agudat Yisrael MK Meir Porush appeared to call on police to refuse orders to arrest yeshiva students who disobey draft orders.

“From here, I call upon the police officers: Remember, you are being asked to arrest Jews because they study Torah,” Porush, who has a history of encouraging draft evasion, declared. “Think very, very carefully about your actions.”

According to the Jerusalem Faction, an extremist ultra-Orthodox group that regularly holds rowdy demonstrations against the military enlistment of yeshiva student, six yeshiva students were arrested for draft evasion on Friday, three of whom were later freed, while the authorities attempted to arrest a seventh near Kiryat Ye’arim around 3:40 a.m. on Sunday morning.

In an email, the group, which runs a hotline to mobilize protesters to block evader arrests, said that the yeshiva student “was released after the crowds arrived.”

In a subsequent statement on Sunday morning, the group called for “stormy” anti-conscription demonstrations in Jerusalem and Bnei Brak at 5 p.m. — although it later said the protests would be postponed following negotiations with the IDF “regarding the release of a large number of yeshiva students and… from military prison.”

The group denied that its message was “a trick or a deception” aimed at law enforcement.

The IDF denied the Jerusalem Faction’s statement, stating that “contrary to what is being claimed, there are no negotiations taking place regarding the release of deserters and draft evaders from military prison.”