Court Freezes Yeshiva Funds, Causing Crisis

Mar 29, 2024 11:09 am | Ticker, Virtual Jerusalem

Historic High Court Ruling Challenges Netanyahu’s Coalition as Religious Parties Threaten to Bolt over Imminent Order to Draft Seminary Students

In a landmark decision, Thursdsay, March 28, 2024, Israel’s High Court of Justice delivered a ruling with profound social and political implications, demanding the cessation of government funding to ultra-Orthodox yeshivas for students eligible for IDF enlistment. This development strikes at the heart of a heated debate surrounding military conscription exemptions for Haredi men—a topic that has long been a source of bitter contention.

The court’s order, set to take effect on April 1, emerges against a backdrop of governmental indecision. The Netanyahu administration’s last-minute efforts to propose a plan for increased Haredi military enlistment fell short, leading to a direct confrontation with judicial authorities. The ruling is perceived as the judges’ final stand against prolonged governmental attempts to delay addressing the enlistment issue.

This judicial decision threatens to throw Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s coalition into disarray, intensifying an already volatile political battle. National Unity’s Benny Gantz has threatened to leave the coalition if the Knesset approves a bill granting blanket exemptions, while Haredi parties, pivotal to Netanyahu’s coalition, have vowed to withdraw if legislation to avert the draft fails.

The response from Haredi leaders to the High Court’s decree was swift and severe. United Torah Judaism’s Yitzhak Goldknopf condemned the decision as a “severe harm to those who toil in Torah,” marking it as a “stain and a disgrace.” Aryeh Deri of the Shas party echoed this sentiment, decrying the decision as “unprecedented maltreatment for Torah study in the Jewish state.”

In contrast, the left-leaning Movement for Quality Government in Israel, responsible for the petitions leading to this decision, hailed it as a significant victory against “illegitimate discrimination,” ending state support for those not sharing the burden of military service.

At the core of the controversy is a cabinet resolution from June 25, 2023, that instructed IDF conscription authorities to refrain from recruiting yeshiva students until March 31, 2024, due to the expiration of a law that allowed for blanket military service exemptions. The government’s failure to devise a new conscription framework by the deadline set by a 2017 High Court ruling—which found the exemptions discriminatory and illegal—has precipitated the current crisis.

The wider secular and national religious Israeli public has increasingly expressed frustration over the exemptions and stipends provided to ultra-orthodox yeshiva students, particularly in light of the economic and blood sacrifices made by other segments of society. This discontent has been amplified by the October 7 terror onslaught and the subsequent conflict with Hamas and Hezbollah, highlighting disparities in national service contributions.

Defense Minister Yoav Gallant and Benny Gantz have criticized the proposed legislation for not adequately increasing Haredi enlistment, with critics arguing that some provisions could further reduce the number of conscripts. The High Court’s decision to immediately halt funding to yeshivas for non-compliant students marks a significant escalation in the government’s urgency to resolve the issue, affecting the funding of 1,257 yeshivas and roughly 49,485 students.

As the High Court schedules a second hearing for May, the nation awaits a resolution to a confrontation that challenges the very fabric of Israeli society and governance, questioning the balance between religious devotion and national duty.

2 Comments

  1. Natan Shlomo

    From times long ago, there was a judge among the Jews named Gideon. He was commanded by Hashem to fight the Midianites. The way that he chose his fighting men was to see how they drank water from the stream. If they laydown upon their stomachs, they were chosen as fighters. If they knelt by the stream they were not chosen because they were bowing to the god of the stream.

    Only the righteous were chosen to be Hashem’s fighters. Thus the tradition of Torah scholars going to battle is over Three Thousand years old. The excuse that Torah students should not be obligated to join the IDF or national service is refuted by the very books that they study.

  2. Rosemary Jill Schaeffer

    I’m glad for the court’s ruling. But for reasons perhaps strange. Halakah expresses its applications to hermeneutical interpretations of texts. Halakah itself knows its contingencies. The Law may be apodictic, but its practices are bound to this world. To absolutize an interpretation denies life its authority. As I understand, suicide is permitted only when the Shema must be refuted. Is that the case in Israel? If not, then Israel’s right to life and the living of it takes precedence over just about everything else. Self-defense is mandatory, not a choice. Religion has its limits….How do I know? Because the Bible tells me so. Am Yisrael Chai

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