Finance Minister Yair Lapid announced on Feb. 5 his joy over the High Court of Justice decision to halt the funding transfer to rabbinical colleges whose students had deferred their enlistment to the Israel Defense Forces (IDF). But the truth is, he does not have real cause for celebration.
The High Court astonished the political system and shocked the ultra-Orthodox. As expected, they harshly lambasted the High Court and accused it of ongoing persecution. In the words of Knesset member Moshe Gafni (Yahadut HaTorah), it was a “declaration of war.” The significance of the ruling is the freeze in the transfer of about 10 million shekels [$2.8 million] to the rabbinical colleges. In their dramatic decision, the justices clarified that they were forced to adopt this extreme measure due to the government and the Knesset's continuing to ignore the court’s verdict of nearly two years ago on Feb. 21, 2012, in which it demanded that ultra-Orthodox conscription must be immediately regularized by law.
