The High Court of Justice on Wednesday temporarily froze a law passed by the Knesset a day earlier that would halt arrest, investigation, and enforcement proceedings against qualifying haredi yeshiva students who failed to report for military service.
Justice Ofer Grosskopf issued a provisional order suspending the law’s entry into force until further notice. He also issued a conditional order requiring the Knesset and government to explain why the law should not be struck down.
Grosskopf cited the court’s longstanding rulings on the enlistment of yeshiva students, the implications of freezing enforcement proceedings “with regard to only certain sections of the population,” and the “weighty arguments” raised by the petitioners against the law’s validity.
The court ordered that the petitions be heard as soon as possible by an expanded panel to be selected by Supreme Court President Isaac Amit. The respondents must submit their replies to the petitions and requests for an interim injunction four days before the hearing, the date of which has not yet been set.
The ruling came in four petitions filed by Israel Hofsheet; opposition leader Yair Lapid and seven other Yesh Atid lawmakers; Yisrael Beytenu chairman Avigdor Liberman, MK Oded Forer, and the party; and the Movement for Quality Government in Israel.
The order does not strike down the legislation but prevents it from taking effect while the court considers the petitions.
Court orders state to defend haredi draft enforcement freeze
The Knesset passed the law in its second and third readings on Tuesday by 58 votes to 54. The temporary provision was set to remain in force until November 30 and would suspend enforcement against yeshiva students meeting the conditions established by the law.
The legislation was passed despite warnings from the Knesset’s legal advisers, who said it would grant yeshiva students immunity from criminal sanctions for failing to meet their reporting obligations while leaving those sanctions in place for the rest of the population. They also raised serious concerns about the legislative process through which the bill was advanced.
Israel Hofsheet CEO Uri Keidar said the movement welcomed the decision. “Haredi youth are subjected to the rule of law, like all the rest of us. No more and no less. If it wasn’t clear yet: the time for equality has come,” he said.
The Movement for Quality Government welcomed the decision as “a significant and important achievement,” saying that “the court stopped the disgrace.”
The group stressed that the provisional order was not the end of the legal proceedings and vowed to continue seeking the full repeal of both the law and the recently enacted Basic Law: Torah Study, saying that “one law must apply to all.”
Israel passes Basic Law: Torah Study amid IDF manpower crisis
The Basic Law, passed by the Knesset on Monday by 63 votes to 52, declares Torah study “a fundamental value in the heritage of the Jewish people and in the State of Israel.” An earlier clause intended to give Torah study weight against other fundamental values was removed following legal warnings, but critics have maintained that the legislation could still be used to strengthen the legal status of yeshiva students who do not serve and support claims that they should retain state benefits.
The movement filed a separate petition against the Basic Law, arguing that the Knesset had misused its constituent authority to advance a narrow political arrangement as constitutional legislation and to circumvent court rulings requiring equality in military service. It described the Basic Law and the freeze on enforcement as two parts of the same effort to grant a draft exemption “through the back door.”
Shas chairman Arye Deri condemned the ruling as “yet another expression of power-drunk judicial activism,” accusing the court of acting without authority to block a law passed by a Knesset majority.
He said the court had chosen to “trample democracy, deepen the chaos and irresponsibly drag the country toward civil war,” rather than allow a temporary measure intended to prevent escalation and create time for broader agreements.
Deri’s description, however, was not reflected in the way the law was advanced. It was brought to a final vote on Tuesday, in the Knesset’s final days before its automatic dispersal ahead of the October 27 election, and passed by a narrow majority as part of a reported coalition package with the haredi parties.
The law neither established a process for reaching a broader enlistment agreement nor set recruitment targets. Instead, it suspended arrest, investigation and enforcement proceedings against qualifying yeshiva students, despite warnings from the Knesset’s legal advisers that it did nothing to reduce inequality in military service and had been advanced through an “improper legislative process.”