http://www.haaretz.com/print-edition/opinion/supreme-court-scores-a-victory-for-equality-in-israel-1.414243
Supreme Court scores a victory for equality in Israel
Following the failure of the Tal Law, the prime minister and his government
should act to end discrimination among young citizens and bring about increased
equality in shouldering the burden of military service.
A decade after the Tal Law was passed by the Knesset, the High Court of Justice
ruled Tuesday that it is unconstitutional and cannot be extended again. The
law, which was to have rectified a situation whereby tens of thousands of
yeshiva students are not drafted into the army, was branded a failure by the
High Court.
In their ruling, the justices indicated that the principle of equality had been
compromised by the way the law mandating military service had been applied,
allowing a whole group to evade service using infuriating excuses.
In one of the last rulings of the outgoing president, Dorit Beinisch, the
justices, by a majority of six to three, looked straight at that twisted
situation that the politicians love to evade for their own extraneous reasons.
The High Court is not keen on putting itself in the place of the lawmakers.
However, this time it recognized a dangerous gap - a rupture in fact - between,
on the one hand, the right of Israelis to equality in shouldering the military
burden and, on the other hand, the verbal acrobatics of MKs for the benefit of
a favored minority to the detriment of a deprived majority. The law, Beinisch
and her colleagues determined, contradicts constitutional, proportional and
egalitarian principles.
The High Court ruling means that the Tal Law has failed, and it is regrettable
that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his partners, Foreign Minister
Avigdor Lieberman and Defense Minister Ehud Barak, and the emissaries of Rabbi
Ovadia Yosef, continued to defend it until it collapsed.
The incoming High Court president, Justice Asher Grunis was in the minority and
stated that "it is an illusion to expect that judicial rulings will lead to the
drafting of the ultra-Orthodox to the Israel Defense Forces and their joining
the labor force." It is also regrettable that he doubts the impact of the court
on the conduct of a segment of Israeli society. The court does have an
influence even if sometimes it can only be seen after some time.
The prime minister, the defense minister and their colleagues in the government
should act now to rectify the discrimination among young citizens and bring
about increased equality in shouldering the burden of military service.
The ultra-Orthodox must understand that the number of young men among them who
are exempt from military service, which now stands at 62,000, exceeds what
Israeli society can bear.
It seems that only of late have the politicians begun to hear the rumblings of
the secular revolution. Israel can be proud that the High Court is attentive to
those voices.
[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]
