The High Court refused to postpone a hearing on the interim
Knesset law passed nine months ago to extend current draft
deferral arrangements for yeshiva students.
An 11-justice High Court of Justice panel will discuss a
petition Tuesday to revoke the law which extends army
exemptions to yeshiva men for two years. Supreme Court
President Aharon Barak on Monday rejected the State
Prosecutor's request to defer hearings on the petition so
that the Knesset has time to legislate a new arrangement for
the yeshiva students during its winter session. The day that
Prime Minster Sharon's government was sworn in, on March 7 of
this year, the Knesset passed a law that extended by two
years the exemption agreement that had been annulled by the
High Court of Justice some years earlier.
The draft deferral for yeshiva students has been at the
center of the chareidi community's political efforts for more
than two years. Since the High Court invalidated the earlier
arrangement that had been in effect for more than 50 years,
settling the legal aspects of the deferral has been the
primary demand of United Torah Judaism (UTJ) for joining any
government. Despite these efforts, no permanent arrangement
is yet in place.
Also, this past Sunday, 24 Kislev, the day before Chanukah,
Deputy Chief Justice of the Magistrate's Court in Jerusalem
Yaakov Tzur issued an order, forbidding a chareidi resident
of Rechavia to light Chanukah candles in the stairwell of the
building in which he lives. This order was in response to a
complaint filed by a secular tenant, attorney Yoram Nitzan,
against R' Michael Kojinski. Their apartment building is on
Bustenai Street.
Attorney Nitzan wrote the court that he and his wife
complained about the menorah lighting to their neighbors many
times and asked them to keep their menorahs inside their
apartments. "The menorah emits a pungent odor of burnt oil in
the stairwell, which has only a very small window. This odor
causes the appellant, his family and his guests a feeling of
suffocation. Sometimes the odor even seeps into the house,
constituting a form of damage which is liable to harm the
health of the members of our family."
