Israel Police chief Danny Levy has ordered police officers to refrain from arresting Chareidi “draft dodgers,” despite the IDF and Justice Ministry’s request for assistance in enforcement, Haaretz reported on Monday.

According to the new directive, from now on, if a Chareidi “draft dodger” is encountered by a police officer, he will receive a summons to appear at the military police, but he will not be arrested or immediately transferred to the military police.

According to the report, the new directive was issued due to concerns about protests and a shortage of security manpower. In a discussion held last month at the Ministry of Justice, it became clear that the police had changed their approach and were unwilling to assist the military police in the arrest of Chareidim, partially due to concerns about clashes and disturbances that would require the police to allocate large forces to restore public order.

The document distributed to police officers states that police officers are forbidden from carrying out joint operations with the military police to capture deserters, such as joint roadblocks. “The Israel Police does not carry out proactive activities on the subject,” it stated.

The statement continues by saying, “Locating and arresting deserters may lead to public order events, including protests and clashes, both locally in the area of the arrest and more broadly in response. If it is discovered that a person detained incidentally is a deserter, the police officers should give him an invitation to visit the military police facility and release him on the spot, without arresting him or transferring him to the military police.”

The statement added that the police officers should refrain from “provocations and expressing an opinion” towards those detained.

i24 News reported weeks ago that the reason for the halt in the arrests of Chareidi “deserters” by the police was the IDF’s refusal to recruit five reserve Border Police (Magav) companies requested by the police. These reserve units were meant to assist police in dealing with public disturbances that tend to erupt following the arrests of bnei yeshivos.

The police had demanded the reserve companies—which the IDF is responsible for recruiting and funding—so that other special riot-control units (Yasam) could be redirected to handle Chareidi protests that break out in response to such arrests.

According to a police source, the IDF refused to call up the reserve units, and as a result, the police stopped arresting deserters, instead issuing them summonses to report to the military police.

The judicial system has strongly criticized the change in the police approach. “They are leaving the military police to deal alone with thousands of deserters and draft dodgers,” a source told Haaretz. “It is illogical and impossible. The police simply do not want to get involved in this event and are afraid of protests instead of assisting in law enforcement.”

(YWN Israel Desk—Jerusalem)