The legal advisory staff to the Knesset Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee says that legislation being prepared that would freeze the arrests of ultra-Orthodox draft dodgers for 90 days would constitute unlawful discrimination and violate the principle of equality before the law.
The assertion made in a legal opinion paper submitted to the committee would significantly harm the chances of the legislation passing judicial review in the High Court of Justice.
The bill is one component of an agreement between the ultra-Orthodox parties and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to preserve Haredi support for key coalition bills being pushed through the Knesset before it is dissolved and elections called at the end of this week.
The legislation would exempt yeshiva students who have ignored military draft orders and are therefore deemed to be draft-dodgers from being arrested for a 90 day period.
The legal advisory staff to the committee, headed by Miri Frenkel Shor, says in a legal opinion paper that the legislation would create a “sectoral exemption” from the obligations of Israel’s military service law, which would create an arrangement that “exempts a specific group from the obligation to abide by the instructions of the law,” without any provisions balancing this injury to the law that might increase ultra-Orthodox enlistment.
“Legislation that practically exempts a certain population from its obligations under the law… does not meet constitutional tests, is incompatible with the principle of equality before the law, and amounts to unlawful discrimination,” the opinion paper states.
In a related development, the Knesset House Committee rejects an effort by opposition MKs to stymie the legislation based on the fact that it is far removed from the original bill, which was the government’s so-called ultra-Orthodox enlistment law.
Knesset Legal Adviser Sagit Afik describes the process by which the Knesset Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee drafted the legislation to freeze arrests for 90-days as “illegitimate,” explaining that the committee “took one clause and deleted all the rest” of the original bill.
“When the plenum approves a bill in its first reading and then it is substantially changed in its preparation for its second and third reading, this is not a legitimate proposal. You cannot take one small leaf from the tree of a bill… and turn it into the principal,” says Afik.
The Knesset House Committee nevertheless rejects her advice and sends the bill back to the Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee for its final votes, after which it can be brought to the plenum for its final readings sometime this week.