Attorney-General Gali Baharav-Miara warns the Israeli government of violating a High Court ruling on military conscription, stressing the risk to Israel's democracy and security.

Attorney-General Gali Baharav-Miara warned the High Court of Justice on Monday that the government is in active violation of a binding court ruling on military conscription, describing the conduct of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his cabinet as a danger to Israel’s democratic system.

In a sharply worded response to petitions seeking sanctions for contempt of court, the attorney-general confirmed that the government has failed to implement the High Court’s November ruling requiring equal enforcement of mandatory military service, including against ultra-Orthodox draft evaders, and has taken no meaningful steps to comply with the decision.

“The government did not act to implement the judgment or the operative remedies directed at it, nor did it express any genuine intention to do so,” Baharav-Miara wrote. “This constitutes a violation of the court’s ruling.”

The petitions were filed following a November High Court judgment, issued by an expanded panel, which held that in the absence of valid legislation exempting yeshiva students, the state must enforce conscription under existing law.

The court ordered the government to formulate, within 45 days, an effective and equitable enforcement policy, including the cessation of economic benefits tied directly or indirectly to draft evasion, and to initiate criminal proceedings against draft dodgers.

Deadline expired

That deadline expired earlier this month.

According to the attorney-general’s submission, no such enforcement policy was adopted, no operative instructions were issued, and no coordinating authority was appointed. The only government discussion held on the matter, she noted, was brief, attended by a limited number of ministers, and conducted without the participation of the prime minister, defense minister, or finance minister.

Baharav-Miara warned that the government’s inaction is particularly grave given public calls by senior ministers to ignore judicial rulings, which she said have gone uncondemned by the prime minister. Such conduct, she wrote, “empties judicial review of practical meaning” and “opens a dangerous path toward unrestrained rule by power.”

Citing Deputy Supreme Court Chief Justice Noam Sohlberg, the attorney-general stressed that the issue is not only one of equality but of urgent security necessity, noting the army’s stated need for thousands of additional soldiers amid the ongoing war.

Sohlberg warned in the judgment he authored that continued mass evasion undermines Israel’s defense capacity and places an unsustainable burden on serving soldiers and reservists.

While the court had emphasized that it was not dictating specific enforcement measures, Sohlberg cautioned that continued defiance could justify stronger judicial intervention in the future.

Uri Keidar, CEO of Israel Hofsheet, one of the petitioners, said the government was deliberately prioritizing political survival over enforcement of the law.

“The government continues to vigorously advance an evasion law while doing nothing that might destabilize its political coalition – even at the cost of ongoing, severe harm to the serving public,” Keidar said.

“As early as this coming Wednesday, another petition we filed will be heard, demanding the revocation of eligibility for housing lotteries for draft evaders. We believe the court will continue to stand with those who serve and carry the state on their backs. The time for equality has come.”

The Movement for Quality Government in Israel, another petitioner, said the attorney-general’s position fully supports its claims that the government’s conduct poses a direct threat to Israel’s democratic order.

“The attorney-general agrees with the Movement’s argument that the government is not complying with the court’s ruling in a manner that creates a real danger to the existence of the democratic regime in the State of Israel,” the organization said.

“A situation in which the government disregards a judicial ruling cannot be tolerated. We hope the court will order the government to immediately comply with the judgment and to take extensive additional civil-economic measures to enforce conscription.”