The Israeli nonprofits Hiddush, which advocates religious freedom and denominational equality within Judaism; Israel Hofshit; and the Israeli Forum for Equal Service; joined with former Member of Knesset Roni Barizon to petition the High Court of Justice in an attempt to stop the right wing government of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu from giving stipends and welfare payments to 54,000 haredi yeshiva students who are evading military service.
Originally published at 8:55 pm CDT 8-14-2012
Nonprofits Petition High Court To Stop Haredi Stipends
Shmarya Rosenberg • FailedMessiah.com
The Israeli nonprofits Hiddush, which advocates religious freedom and denominational equality within Judaism; Israel Hofshit; and the Israeli Forum for Equal Service; joined with former Member of Knesset Roni Barizon to petition the High Court of Justice in an attempt to stop the right wing government of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu from giving stipends and welfare payments to 54,000 haredi yeshiva students who are evading military service. The petition was reported tonight by the Israeli daily Ha'aretz.
Haredi political parties are Netanyahu’s political allies, and he needs their votes – and the votes of haredi yeshiva students – to retain power.
The haredi yeshiva students were able to dodge the draft legally due to the much criticized Tal Law, which was found to be unconstitutional by the High Court of Justice in February.
The government has had six months to draft a constitutional law, but repeatedly failed to do so when several attempts were quashed by Netanyahu at last minute.
end of the deferment followed a court ruling barring further extension of the Tal Law, which provided the deferments, beyond August 1.
The petitioners assert that government yeshiva stipends and other support can only be given legally to haredi yeshiva students who are legally exempt from military service.
But because the Tal law expired and Netanyahu blocked a haredi draft, they argue that no haredi yeshiva students now qualify as exempt – and, therefore, none of them can legally receive government stipends and other government grants.
The government had been paying more than $87 million per year to support yeshiva students, according to various estimates. University and technical college students – the vast majority of whom serve in the military before attending – do not receive similar financial support.
"The principle must be clear. Anyone who doesn't serve cannot and does not need to receive allocations from the state. It's a real pity that the attorney general [Yehuda Weinstein] has not ordered an immediate stop to the money and has required us to turn to the High Court of Justice [again],” Rabbi Uri Regev, president of Hiddush, told Ha’aretz.
[Hat Tip: Ruthie.]