The High Court of Justice on Tuesday gave the state 45 days to justify paying
haredi yeshiva students’ subsidies.
The order brought the court one step
closer to ruling on the ongoing legal disputes over state subsidies for
military-age haredi yeshiva students – estimated at 54,000 people – and their
integration into the IDF or national service, after the February 2012
discontinuation of the “Tal Law.”
The 2002 law had provided a framework
for yeshiva students to postpone their military service indefinitely, and
encouraged participation in national service.
Since the law officially
ceased to be in effect in August 2012, the 1949 Law for Security Service has
technically applied to all haredim. That law would formally require all army-age
citizens, haredi or otherwise, to be drafted into the military or national
service.
However, while the state initiated a policy to increase the
number of haredi draftees, it set limits on the increase so it was not
universally applicable, effectively deferring the issue indefinitely.
The
state also decided to continue full payments to haredi yeshiva students who are
not being drafted until a new law or policy is in place. Those payments were the
subject of Tuesday’s hearing.
The petitioners say the state does not have
the authority to continue paying these yeshiva students’ subsidies until a new
law is passed granting that authority.
In the meantime, the petitioners
demand that the subsidies cease.
Other filed petitions, which did not
come before the court on Tuesday, have also demanded that haredim who meet the
age requirement be drafted.