Israel’s Tax Authority is preparing to launch a sweeping new enforcement campaign that could strip tax benefits from donations made to yeshivos that enroll bochurim classified by the military as “draft evader”s, according to a report aired Wednesday by Kan News.

Under the reported plan, the Tax Authority is expected to contact yeshivos in the coming weeks that currently qualify for tax-deductible charitable donations and require them to declare whether any of their talmidim are classified as “draft evaders”.

The institutions will also reportedly be required to submit student rosters, which will be cross-checked against military records. If a yeshiva is found to have students classified as “draft evaders”, it could lose its eligibility for tax-deductible donations under Section 46, a benefit that is estimated to be worth tens of millions of shekels annually across the Torah world.

The move follows a directive issued last month by Attorney General Gali Baharav-Miara, who instructed that donors to yeshivos attended by students who have not enlisted should no longer receive tax benefits. The directive sparked fierce opposition from Chareidi political parties, which warned that the financial impact on Torah institutions could reach tens or even hundreds of millions of shekels each year.

Kan News also reported that even before responding to petitions filed with Israel’s High Court of Justice, the attorney general instructed the Tax Authority and other government officials to begin preparing the administrative framework needed to halt tax-subsidized donations to affected yeshivos.

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