Tal c'tee member: Striking down law was 'extreme'

Forum for Equality lashes out as P. Yedidya Stern for upholding status quo, possible "dirty deal" that does not truly solve Tal Law issue.

By JPOST.COM STAFF
Haredi IDF soldiers Tal Law 370 (photo credit: REUTERS/Handout .)
Haredi IDF soldiers Tal Law 370
(photo credit: REUTERS/Handout .)
Professor Yedidya Stern, a member of a Knesset committee for replacing the Tal Law, on Tuesday labelled the High Court's ruling striking down the law as "extreme." 
Stern also said that the issue was beyond the jurisdiction of the High Court as it was not a legal question but "a matter of policy," in comments to the Israel Bar Association in Eilat.
The High Court struck down the law earlier this year and set August 1 as the date for the state to replace the law before it expires.
Stern said that haredi society wants to leave the "ghetto" and escape the pervasive poverty enveloping it, but the community needs to be helped carefully and given "ladders and ropes" to make the change.
The Forum for Equality lashed out at Stern, and others on the Knesset committee for replacing the Tal Law, as showing bias in favor of the status quo.
The Forum said that strengthening the status quo and criticizing the High Court were contrary to promises made in the unity deal that brought Kadima into the government and foreshadowed another "dirty deal" that would not truly resolve the problems underlying the Tal Law controversy.
Speaking a the same event, Justice Minister Yaakov Neeman told the conference that the Torah study performed by the haredi community is important for our continued existence, but that military service was essential as well.
Neeman said that all involved parties in the issue of integrating haredim into military and national service need to "sit and talk, and find how to balance" the relevant issues.