Supreme Court
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The Supreme Court on Tuesday evening rejected Defense Minister Benny Gantz's request to give the government another six months to enact a new Draft Law.

The court ruled that the previous version of the Draft Law would expire in three months and no further extensions would be granted to replace it in accordance with previous Supreme Court rulings.

Gantz's request for an extension stated that "the government is currently dealing with the virus, and in light of this, the government and the Knesset are not promoting legislation unrelated to dealing with the coronavirus, except for exceptional issues that cannot be postponed."

The request also states that in recent weeks the Defense Minister has been intensively concerned with the issue of maintaining the security supremacy of the State of Israel in light of the far-reaching strategic changes that have taken place in the Middle East recently, and therefore no significant progress has been made.

The previous Draft Law was struck down by the Supreme Court in 2017. The government and the Knesset were given one year to enact a new law to replace it. The government has repeatedly requested extensions in the deadline, requests which have been granted until now.

The haredi parties claimed that the defense minister was delaying dealing with the issue and that he wanted to stretch the issue as long as possible in order to continue to hold the bargaining chip of the recruitment law as a 'whip' against the haredi parties in case the government was dissolved. "He's holding our throats for the crucial day."