Incoming President of the High Court of Justice Asher Gronis was among those in the minority opinion in the ruling on Tuesday, 28 Shevat 5772, declaring the Tal Law illegal. The 9-justice panel of the High Court ruled 6-3 in favor of abolishing the Tal Law, ruling the Knesset may not renew it when it expires on August 1, 2012. Justice Gronis explained “It would be an illusion to believe that the decision will result in the drafting of chareidim. “It simply will not happen” stated Justice Gronis, who opted to adopt the realistic approach.
On the other side was outgoing president, Justice Dorit Beinish, who was critical of the Tal Law for it fails to place any burden on the chareidi community, not even compelling a national service towards having this sector of the population pull its weight regarding communal responsibility. Beinish added that looking at the figures; one can determine the law failed. The increasing numbers of chareidi inductees simply never reached acceptable levels, pointing out in 2010, there were 600 chareidim enlisting under the Tal arrangement.
In actuality, the move by the nation’s highest court does not come as a surprise. It is a ruling in line with the court’s philosophy and judicial decisions.
Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu has already signaled the Knesset will legislate a solution. He stated “As I stated even before the High Court of Justice decision, the Tal Law in its current format will not be continued, and in the coming months we will formulate a new law that will lead to a more just change in the burden of all sectors of Israeli society.”
Defense Minister Ehud Barak stated that the ten-year-old law simply failed to reach its intended goals, to implement a change. Barak explained the law was to have resulted in 2,000-3,000 avreichim continuing to study Torah full time while the remainder would be enlisted in military or alternative type of national service.
Opposition leader Tzipi Livni stated “We don’t need the court to confirm the imbalance in assuming responsibility for the continuance of the nation”. She told Israel Radio on Wednesday morning, 29 Shevat 5772 she plans to introduce a bill that will compel all citizens over the age of 18 to take part in military, national or some form of civilian service to share the burden. “It is time to put an end to the unacceptable situation,” in which a rapidly growing sector of the community simply does not pull its own weight regarding national security and economic growth. Yisrael Beitenu is also moving ahead with a bill that if passed into law, would compel all citizens to “share in the burden”.
Speaking from the same pragmatic viewpoint that led him to work towards establishing the law, Justice Tal stated “the chareidim will not enlist. Then what will you do?” He went on to explain that he feels the progress made regarding the number of chareidim enlisting over the years will most likely be lost as a result of the court’s ruling, so in short he questions the wisdom of winning the battle and losing the war, simply stated nothing whatsoever will be gained by the court’s ruling.
In 1948, there were 400 chareidim who did not enlist, declaring Torah was their profession. This rose to 45,500 in 2005, 57,800 in 2009, and in 2010, state officials report that number to be 61,000.
The law was formulated beginning in 1999 after the High Court ruled the defense minister is exceeding the authority of his office by deciding who may and may receive a deferment from military service. The committee formulating the law was headed by retired High Court justice Tzvi Tal, a shomer shabbos individual, who was appointed by Prime Minister Ehud Barak who also served as defense minister.
Back in 2005 the state declared the arrangement a failure, citing too few chareidim enlisted into the military and the High Court a year later declared the law was contrary to Basic Law and therefore, unacceptable. Nevertheless the court granted an 18-month extension which was following by another extension.
(YWN – Israel Desk, Jerusalem)
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One Response
So according to Livni, a “rapidly growing sector of the community simply does not pull its own weight regarding national security and economic growth.”
So what is her solution to the enormous number of Isrealis who do not pull their own weight with regards to the transmition of Torah to the next generation? Seems to be that you cannot address one situation without also addressing the other.