High Court of Justice hears petition to cancel arrest freeze for draft dodgers – government absent

Israel's High Court of Justice heard petitions against a law freezing arrests of ultra-Orthodox draft dodgers. The government did not send a representative to defend the law. The Attorney General called the law discriminatory. The court is expected to rule soon.

Israel's High Court of Justice (Bagatz) heard petitions on Tuesday morning, July 28, 2026, against a law freezing arrests of ultra-Orthodox draft dodgers. The hearing lasted an hour and a half because the government refused to participate and did not send a representative to defend the law. Attorney General Gali Baharav-Miara had previously submitted an opinion calling the law discriminatory and suggested hiring an external lawyer, but the government did not take that opportunity. The interests of the ultra-Orthodox community were represented by attorney Natan Rosenblat, who complained about arrests and travel restrictions abroad. Justice Noam Solberg cited statistics: from January 2025 to May 2026, 333 conscripts were arrested, of whom 105 were ultra-Orthodox (less than 30%). Representatives of the Knesset and government legal advisers called for the law to be repealed, calling it discriminatory and immoral in wartime. The law was passed by the Netanyahu coalition on July 14, 2026, and was intended to protect yeshiva students from prosecution, but Bagatz temporarily froze its implementation. The court is expected to rule soon.