Israel's High Court of Justice yesterday struck down a 2015 law that was intended to reverse attempts enacted a year earlier to increase the number of ultra-Orthodox young people who are drafted into the Israel Defense Forces. As reported by
Times of Israel:
Eight justices, led by Chief Justice Miriam Naor, ruled that the current arrangement was increasing the inequality in the “draft burden,” rather than reducing it, which was the law’s stated purpose and the grounds for its constitutionality. That made it an “unconstitutional law,” the justices ruled.
One dissenter, Justice Noam Solberg, argued that the law had not been in effect long enough to determine its effect on the military draft, and therefore no determination could yet be made about its constitutionality.
The Court gave the Knesset one year to come up with a different arrangement. Ultra-Orthodox members of the Knesset strongly criticized the decision. For example, Deputy Education Minister Meir Porush of the United Torah Judaism party said:
The High Court of Justice’s judicial activism completely empties Knesset legislation of importance, turning it into a dead letter. Today’s decision just drives another stake into the coffin. The High Court of Justice is eager for the apocalypse.
