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NEWS
Justice Barak Expresses Prior Opposition to Draft
Deferral Law
by G. Lazar
Judicial experts were flabbergasted by High Court Chief
Justice Aharon Barak's announcement of his opposition to the
grant of draft deferrals to yeshiva students on the eve of
High Court deliberations on the issue. UTJ MK Rabbi Avrohom
Ravitz told Yated Ne'eman that Justice Barak should
have disqualified himself from deliberation on the appeal
since the justice had publicly expressed his opinion prior
to the Court deliberations. "It is inconceivable that a
judge with opinionated ideas deliberate on a controversial
issue," Rabbi Ravitz said.
The High Court deliberation was on three appeals filed
against the temporary order approved by a large majority of
the Knesset that extends the term for a decision on the
draft deferrals by an additional two years. The appeals were
filed by MK Yossi Paritzki, Attorney Yehuda Ressler and the
Hitorrerut movement.
Immediately preceding the deliberation, while speaking at
the Interdepartmental Center in Herzliya, Aharon Barak said,
"The State must not discriminate between its citizens on the
basis of religion or race, and the rights and obligations of
a religious person should be identical to those of a secular
person". He added: "The question facing the court is: does
the law undermine the legal and constitutional right for
equality?" Barak, noted, incidentally, that not all of his
colleagues agree with him.
Rabbi Ravitz reacted to the High Court deliberations by
saying: "This is an absurd situation, since the Knesset has
already passed a law extending the deferral arrangement for
two years by a large majority. This was done at the request
of the High Court, and in that manner, the Knesset obeyed
its ruling. It is inconceivable that the High Court
deliberate on a appeal opposing compliance with its own
ruling! The Court must try at the outset to cancel the
deliberation, instead of attempting to instate a judicial
dictatorship and to transform it into a fait
accompli. Whatever the High Court decides, the Jewish
Nation has been promised that the Torah will not be
forgotten from its seed and its children's seed forever, and
we will continue to take shelter in the shade of the Torah,
despite all those who pursue it."
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