The High Court of Justice on Tuesday ordered the government to explain why it has never set a formal policy on drafting Arab citizens to the IDF or assigning them mandatory civilian service, anchoring its demand in the principle of equality in the burden of military service.
In a conditional order issued by Supreme Court Chief Justice Isaac Amit and justices David Mintz and Yechiel Kasher, the state was given until March 1 to file a detailed response. The justices instructed the government to clarify “why no recruitment policy is being set for Arab citizens and residents of Israel under the General Security Service Law, and, alternatively, why it is not advancing an alternative arrangement through appropriate legislation.”
The order was granted in a petition filed by Mordechai Yair Balens, a young haredi (ultra-Orthodox) man, represented by attorney Motti Shimon and reportedly backed politically by Likud MK David Amsalem. Balens asked why the court is prepared to force the government to begin drafting tens of thousands of yeshiva students, but has allowed a de facto exemption for Arab Israelis to persist since the state’s founding, without any explicit government decision.
The issue sits squarely on the fault-line opened by the court’s unanimous June 2024 ruling that the state must start drafting haredi men and cannot continue funding full-time yeshiva students without a clear statutory basis. In that decision, the justices framed equality in the burden of military service as a core constitutional principle and a prerequisite for continuing the “people’s army” model.
Balens’s filing argues that, if equality is now the yardstick, it cannot be applied only to haredim. The petition demands that the state issue call-up orders to all citizens, including Arabs, or direct them into a mandatory national-civilian service track, and impose criminal enforcement and loss of benefits on those who do not report.
The conditional order follows a months-long exchange between the court, the Attorney-General’s Office, and the political echelon in the same case.
A-G stresses 'relevant difference' between Arab, haredi communities
In September, Attorney-General Gali Baharav-Miara told the court that the long-standing practice not to draft Arab Israelis is a policy that “has been in place since the establishment of the state,” and that there is “relevant difference” between the Arab minority and the haredi community – meaning the haredi draft ruling does not automatically extend to other groups.
She stressed that the government has full authority to change the policy and begin drafting Arab citizens, but urged the justices not to intervene at this stage.
Baharav-Miara had cited the Defense Ministry’s position that there is “no basis for the claim of a violation of equality” in not drafting Arab Israelis, because of “significant differences between the characteristics of the two groups,” and noted that Arab citizens who wish to serve can volunteer and are considered on an individual basis.
By contrast, cabinet secretary Yossi Fuchs accused the legal establishment of applying a “double standard.” In a sharply worded letter appended to the state’s earlier response, he argued that “there has never been a government decision” formally exempting Arab Israelis, and described the current situation as a “silent understanding” under which the IDF simply does not summon them for service. Fuchs said that if funding is being cut for haredi draft dodgers following the High Court’s ruling, similar standards should be considered for Arab citizens who do not serve.
The turning point for the court came after the state informed the justices on November 19 that “the relevant political echelon does not intend to intervene in the practice in place to date whereby the IDF does not draft the Arab population.”
In light of that statement, the panel concluded that a bare reliance on IDF practice, without any decision or legislative framework by the elected branches, is no longer tenable – especially while the same government relies on the principle of equal burden to justify hard measures against haredi draft evasion.
Tuesday’s order does not force the government to begin drafting Arab Israelis. Instead, it puts the onus squarely on the prime minister, defense minister, and cabinet to either articulate a formal policy – whether for military or civilian service – or to explain to the court, and to the broader public watching the haredi draft battle, why the existing vacuum should continue.