Attorney General Gali Baharav-Miara told the Supreme Court Sunday that the government has the authority to change state policy and require Israeli Arabs to serve in the military or national service. Her statement came in response to a petition filed by the lawyer of Minister Dudi Amsalem seeking a ruling on the issue.
Baharav-Miara attached a letter from government secretary Yossi Fuchs, who said there was a “silent agreement” rather than a formal policy exempting Arabs from service. Fuchs added that policy on conscription is set by the IDF and noted that “if Haredi benefits are canceled following the removal of exemptions, the same should apply to Arabs,” without specifying whether the government plans to act.
The Attorney General emphasized that the current policy, which exempts Israeli Arabs from compulsory service, has been in place since Israel’s founding. She argued that the government alone has the authority to change it and stressed that decisions of this nature cannot be made by an IDF commander alone without political direction and a structured government process involving relevant professional authorities.
“The government has the ability to formulate updated policy on this matter,” Baharav-Miara wrote. “If the government maintains that there is no official policy, we request that the court allow the government to convene, discuss the issue, and submit an updated notice after a policy is formulated.”
Baharav-Miara cited previous petitions dating back to 1997 and 2001 in which the state had noted that there were no substantive reasons to require Israeli Arabs to serve and that the time was not yet right to impose mandatory service on the entire Arab-Israeli minority.
The current petition was filed after the High Court rejected a similar petition, ruling that a minister cannot petition against the government in which he serves. The Defense Ministry said there is no basis for claims of inequality in the non-drafting of Israeli Arabs due to significant differences between population groups, and argued that the exemption does not constitute illegal discrimination.
The ministry and Attorney General maintain that there is a “relevant distinction” between Jewish and Arab populations in Israel, a legal criterion that allows different policies for different groups. In practice, Jewish citizens are subject to mandatory service, while Arab citizens have had exemptions since the country’s founding. Requests by Arab citizens to serve are evaluated individually.
In his attached letter, Fuchs criticized the Attorney General’s position, writing that “this is not an official policy of Israeli governments. Factually, Israeli governments have never made a decision on exemptions for Arabs. The matter has been handled in practice by the IDF commander, but it is unclear why a policy followed for years is relevant to responding to the petition.
“In light of recent rulings, and given your position requiring the cancellation of support payments for conscripts whose status is not legislatively regulated, the government is not authorized to establish exemption or deferment policies for specific population groups. The petitioner complains about the double legal standard you have adopted. You demand the cancellation of support for yeshiva students required to serve as long as their status is not regulated by law, yet you do not apply the same standard to the Arab public.”