Court OKs Emmanuel fathers' release

Settlement reached for Ashkenazi, Sephardi girls to learn together.

By DAN IZENBERG, JPOST.COM STAFF
Emmanuel 311 (photo credit: Channel 10)
Emmanuel 311
(photo credit: Channel 10)
The High Court agreed Sunday to release the jailed fathers of the girls enrolled in the Beit Ya'acov elementary school in Emmanuel.
The decision came after an agreement was reached earlier Sunday morning between Shas party spiritual mentor Rabbi Ovadiah Yosef and the Slonim rabbi, the religious leader of the families of the children of the Beit Ya'acov school. The agreement stated that all of the children, Ashkenzai and Sepharadi, registered in the girls' schools in Emmanuel will spend the next three days - the last three days of the school year- attending lectures by leading rabbis and other educators.
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Shas and Slonim leaders sat together in discussions until the early morning to reach an agreement, Interior Minister Eli Yishai told Army Radio in an interview after the court ruling Sunday.
"We are for peace. We will continue to be there afterwards to ensure this decision is kept, " said Yishai.
The agreement also calls for the right of the Ashkenzai parents to establish a new school next year in accordance with the regulations drawn up by the Independent Education Center, the separate school they had been operating.
The legal representatives of the petitioners and of the State recognized the settlement reached by the Shas and Slonim religious leaders as fulfilling the terms of the High Court ruling last year prohibiting ethnic discirmination in the Beit Ya'acov school.
The petition was signed after the Ashkenazi parents established a separate school within the Beit Ya'acov school building.
Since the agreement only covers the next three days, the court ordered the parents to inform it by August 25 of what arrangements had been made in the Beit Ya'acov school for the following school year.
Thousands of demonstrators showed up Saturday evening outside the Central District Court in Tel Aviv in support of the High Court's determination to end the separation of Sepharadi and Ashkenzai students in Emmanuel's school.
Attending the rally, MK Nitzan Horowitz (Meretz) said, "Wake up Netanyahu! Even Eli Yishai and Moshe Gafni received blows in Mea Shearim."
Horowitz also announced that he would propose a bill in the Knesset Sunday that would prevent schools that discriminate against students from receiving government financial support.