The Israeli Attorney General’s Office sent a letter to instruct the Israeli Defense Forces (IDF) to immediately recall 3,000 ultra-Orthodox students starting next Monday (1st).
The statement was sent hours after Israel’s Supreme Court of Justice ruled that these students must perform mandatory military service.
Ultra-Orthodox students at yeshivas (Orthodox Jewish schools where the Talmud, Torah and rabbinic traditions are studied), when they reached the age of 18, were granted exemptions year after year, until they reached the age of 26, the military exemption age for all citizens.
Faced with the needs of the war against the terrorist group Hamas, pressure grew in Israeli society for this benefit to be interrupted. The exemption was last renewed in June 2023 and expired this year.
“The security system is obliged to act immediately to implement the decision to call up yeshivah students who are required to perform military service, in accordance with the needs of the army and its capabilities, and in accordance with its commitment to recruit 3,000 recruits.” , said Deputy Attorney General Gil Limon in the letter, according to information from the Times of Israel newspaper.
Although there are currently around 63,000 ultra-Orthodox students in yeshivas in Israel, the IDF informed the Supreme Court that there would be “realistic” conditions to call up only 3,000 in the 2024 enlistment, which began this month. The prosecutor’s office called for a plan so that more ultra-Orthodox people beyond that number could be summoned.
The Attorney General’s Office also instructed the Defense, Finance and Education ministries to stop transferring funds previously earmarked for yeshivas to students whose studies were a substitute for military service.
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