A three-justice Supreme Court panel, comprised of Chief Justice Barak, Dorit Beinish and Theodore Ohr, ruled today that the State must explain within 60 days why the current yeshiva-exemption law should not be voided. The current law extends the status quo, under which yeshiva students receive a renewable one-year exemption from the army, by two years. An 11-justice panel will sit at the next hearing.
Atty. Yehuda Ressler, counsel for Hit\'orerut (Awakening), the group that filed suit against the law, expressed satisfaction with today\'s ruling, saying, \"Finally we will know one way or another whether the exemption from the army is fair or not. Just like we all pay taxes, we should all have to face the same dangers defending the country.\" Atty. Yoram Sheftel, defending two yeshiva students and the exemption law, said that the plaintiffs were not acting in good faith, \"as they demand that the army induct only the hareidim, and not the Arabs, for instance.\" He also accused the Court of taking a political stand on the matter, and further said that the Court would humiliate itself if it rules that all hareidim must be drafted, \"as this will be unenforceable.\" The Court heard only Sheftel today, in an apparent sign that it was already sympathetic to the plaintiffs\' cause.
Atty. Yehuda Ressler, counsel for Hit\'orerut (Awakening), the group that filed suit against the law, expressed satisfaction with today\'s ruling, saying, \"Finally we will know one way or another whether the exemption from the army is fair or not. Just like we all pay taxes, we should all have to face the same dangers defending the country.\" Atty. Yoram Sheftel, defending two yeshiva students and the exemption law, said that the plaintiffs were not acting in good faith, \"as they demand that the army induct only the hareidim, and not the Arabs, for instance.\" He also accused the Court of taking a political stand on the matter, and further said that the Court would humiliate itself if it rules that all hareidim must be drafted, \"as this will be unenforceable.\" The Court heard only Sheftel today, in an apparent sign that it was already sympathetic to the plaintiffs\' cause.