The High Court of Justice sharply reprimanded the police on Sunday during a hearing on the government’s efforts to enforce ultra-Orthodox military conscription, with one justice declaring that the rule of law had failed.

Justice David Mintz, the strongest conservative on the bench, accused police of being afraid of “the mob,” when the police representative complained that arrest operations of ultra-Orthodox, or Haredi, draft dodgers resulted in mass riots.

Other judges expressed astonishment that police enforcement against draft evasion was greater against non-Haredi draft dodgers than Haredim, despite the overwhelming majority of draft dodgers coming from the Haredi community.

The court was also fiercely critical of the government itself, and repeatedly accused it of failing to do anything to implement the court’s rulings regarding enforcing the draft on ultra-Orthodox military-age men.

All five justices on the panel expressed frustration bordering on anger with the government’s failure to enforce the draft, and asked pointed questions of the attorney general’s representatives and the petitioners’ lawyers about how judicial orders could most effectively prompt state action on the issue.

The justices’ questions appeared to indicate they were seeking to formulate orders to ensure that government ministries would be legally bound to revoke various welfare benefits for those obligated to perform military service who have refused to comply with enlistment orders.

The hearing dealt with a request by the Movement for Quality Government in Israel that the justices find the government in contempt of court for failing to abide by a November 19, 2025, ruling that it must draw up effective social and economic enforcement measures against ultra-Orthodox men who fail to enlist for compulsory military service.

The court ordered the government to respond by January 4, and when it failed to do so the Movement for Quality Government filed its contempt of court request.

A hearing on the request was originally scheduled for March 1, but was postponed because of the war with Iran.

The government is yet to draw up such enforcement policies.

According to an update........

© The Times of Israel