The High Court ruled just before Pesach that the Jerusalem
Municipality must stop giving yeshiva students who receive
welfare payments from the Religious Affairs Ministry an
automatic 70 percent discount on their municipal property
taxes (arnona). The petition was submitted by city
councilman Ornan Yekutieli and the militant anti religious
Am Hofshi group.
The Court also ruled the municipality must either include
the child welfare payments of families with four or more
children in calculating their income, or omit the child
welfare payments to families of three or fewer children.
Until now, in assessing the income of families to determine
whether or not they are eligible for a discount on the basis
of low income the city did not include child allowance
payments for families with four or more children in their
calculations. The court ruled that the deductions to yeshiva
students were unfair because they discriminated against
other sectors of the population, including secular students
in economic circumstances similar to yeshiva students, and
because the means test applied to yeshiva students did not
take into account their total income.
"The sweeping consideration toward all yeshiva students is
unworthy and unfair from every point of view. Each one of
those yeshiva students enjoys the municipal services like
any other resident. If he wants to benefit from a full
waiver or deduction, let him prove his eligibility. The
label 'yeshiva student' in its own right is not enough to
make him automatically eligible for a deduction in arnona
payments," the court wrote in its decision. "Let us take a
yeshiva student and a university student," the court
continued. "Both are married and do not work (nor do their
wives). They do not earn money, and each has three children.
Neither is eligible for welfare from the National Insurance
Institute.ÉTheir economic situation might be the same, but
the yeshiva student will benefit from a deduction in his
municipal tax, while the university student will not. Where
is the justice in that?"
On the other hand, the universities are much more heavily
subsidized and university students generally enjoy more
benefits in many areas than yeshiva students. Perhaps the
way is now clear to redress these more serious grievances as
well.
Regarding the fact that the municipality does not include
the child allowance payments for families of four children
or more in assessing their income, the court wrote that the
city was confusing national and local policies. The
encouragement of large families is a matter of state policy.
The municipality's concerns are different and therefore
should not take the national policy into account in
determining the income of families living within its
boundaries.
The court ruled that the municipality must determine its
arnona assessments for the coming year in accordance with
the decision. It also pointed out that there might be other
provisions in the arnona deduction regulations which are
improper or discriminatory. According to figures provided by
Am Hofshi, some 60 percent of charedi families in Jerusalem
receive arnona discounts of 80-90 percent. The charedim, who
constitute 30 percent of the population of Jerusalem,
contribute 9.5 percent of the city's income from arnona
according to those figures.
The court did not try to assess whether the chareidim also
enjoy 30 percent of the budget. In many areas the
municipality provides fewer and a lower level of services to
chareidi areas.
Interior Minister Eli Yishai said he would study the
opinion, but would do everything in his power, within the
law, to ease the plight of the needy as much as possible,
including the disabled, families with many children, and
yeshiva students.
MK Rabbi Avraham Ravitz (UTJ) said that he was not surprised
by the High Court's decision, since "experience teaches that
we do not expect to [find satisfaction] in this
institution." Rabbi Ravitz added that the court has "never
been sympathetic to religious issues," and that from the
start the court trend is to be "anti-religious in general
and anti- charedi in particular."
