Clearly the drums of war are beating in the chareidi camp and a doubt hangs over the future of the coalition government following the High Court ruling striking down the law regulating the chareidi draft. Chareidi parties are already working to legislate a law to circumvent the bill, sending a clear message to Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu, that the future of his coalition rides on this.

Porush stated, “The judicial activism of the High Court of Justice nullifies the importance of legislation in the Knesset, which is becoming a dead letter, and today’s ruling is a continuation of the poking of the pegs in the coffin.

“For seventy years, the state did not have equality with the chareidi tzibur, the chareidim know that they are discriminated against and that is the price of independence.”

Chairman of the Finance Committee MK Moshe Gafni added, “throughout the history of the Jewish people there were many within and outside the Jewish people who tried to prevent yeshiva students from continuing their studies, some of them tried it forcibly, some in other ways.

“I totally reject the High Court ruling and over the coming year we will correct this despite the decision of the justices who have no idea what the Torah scholars mean and our right to exist as a nation depends on yeshiva students and the whole world, ‘אם לא בריתי יומם ולילה חוקות שמים וארץ לא שמתי'”.

(YWN – Israel Desk, Jerusalem)