Israel’s highest court has ordered the formation of a special 11-judge panel to review a provisional law allowing religious students to receive two-year draft deferments and avoid military service.
The order, issued Thursday, comes as Israel is facing increased pressure from military reservists who have been called up extensively since September for duty because of the latest Palestinian uprising.
The Jerusalem Post said the panel of judges will review three petitions asking the high court to abolish a Knesset [parliament] law whereby the defense minister may grant two-year draft deferments to yeshiva students.
The provisional law extends by two years the current arrangement, which the court has already declared illegal, the paper said.
The panel of justices, said the paper, also ordered the petitioners to name the “Committee of Yeshivas in Eretz Yisrael” as a respondent, so those who would be most directly affected by the repeal of the law would have a chance to present their arguments to the court.
Respondents listed by the court are the Israeli government, the Knesset, Committee of Yeshivas in Eretz Yisrael and Ya’acov Ma’alimi, a yeshiva student represented by attorney Yoram Sheftel. They have 60 days to present their arguments, the justices ordered.
Yossi Paritzky, of the Shinui Party, called the case “perhaps the most important in Israel’s history.”
In December, WND reported that the Israeli military was hoping to avoid a political firestorm over the issue of whether it would have to draft up to 26,000 of the ultra-Orthodox seminary students.
Analysts in Israel say the high court is being asked to rule, essentially, on the constitutionality of the law granting the deferments.
“At stake are two crucial issues,” the paper said. “The first is whether or not the haredi community should have blanket immunity from compulsory military service. The second is whether the high court will dare repeal such a sensitive law, which was passed by the Knesset in an indisputably proper procedure.”
Yesterday, officials tried unsuccessfully to have the high court reject the petitions outright. Some said the law — known as the Basic Law: Human Dignity and Freedom — does not prohibit discrimination.
Also, officials in support of the measure said that other groups, including new immigrants over the age of 22 and Arabs, are also exempt from military conscription.
On Dec. 9, 1998, another panel of 11 justices ruled that the system introduced after the state was created, whereby the defense minister granted draft deferments according to his own discretion on the strength of a minor provision of the law, was improper. It gave the Knesset a year to legislate the arrangement it wanted, the Post said.
Lawmakers were unable to pass a measure in the interim, and on Dec. 20, 2000, the high court refused the government’s request for yet another extension to give lawmakers more time to write the law.
After the high court ruling, which declared the provisional deferment law illegal, Knesset members hurriedly passed a four-and-a-half month provisional law legalizing the draft-deferral system. Later, it extended it by two more years.
Because of its small size and proximity to historic enemies, Israel has long had to adapt to the reality that during a major crisis, every able-bodied male and female could be drafted for military service.
Yet, despite any imminent or actual threats, yeshiva students have routinely been excused from military duty, angering many secular Israelis and some government leaders.
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