Tal committee

The Tal committee was an Israeli public committee appointed on August 22, 1999 by then prime minister and defense minister Ehud Barak. It was headed by former Supreme Court Justice Tzvi Tal and dealt with the special exemption from mandatory military service in the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) given to Israeli ultra-Orthodox Jews.

Based on the committee results, the Tal Law was passed on July 23, 2002 in the Israeli parliament, the Knesset, as a temporary law which needs to be renewed every five years. The bill enables a continuation of the exempts to yeshiva students subject to the detailed conditions within the bill. According to the law, at the age of 22, yeshiva students are provided with a decision year and can choose between one-year civil service alongside a paying job or a shortened 16-month military service and future service in the reserves as an alternative to continuing to study.

Five motions against the law were filed with the High Court of Justice claiming it violates the principle of equality. In 2005, the state admitted in a response to a Supreme Court petition, that the Tal Law had failed to change enlistment arrangements for ultra-Orthodox Jews, as only a few dozen had enlisted to the army as a result of it. The law was extended in 2007 by another five years. On February 21, 2012, the High Court of Justice ruled that the law is unconstitutional.

Background

Although yeshiva students were not technically exempt from military service, their enlistment was annually postponed until they received an age or parental exemption. This situation, while in practice from the early days of Israel, was viewed by many as undemocratic, unjust and unequal. Unlike other exemptions from military service given to some groups in Israel (Bedouin, Arabs, and others), it was based on a ministerial order and not specified in the law.

In 1974 only 2.4% of the soldiers enlisting to the army that year were exempt because they were yeshiva members, under the Torato Omanuto arrangement. This number has reached 9.2% in 1999. It is anticipated that this percentile will reach up to 15% by the year 2012. By comparison, in the year 2025 the orthodox sector in Israel is expected to reach 12.4% of the total population, whereas the children of this sector would reach 22.4%. In 1999 there were 30,414 exempted yeshiva students, and by 2005 the number grew to 41,450. To be recognized as an exempt yeshiva student one must meet two conditions: dedicate one's whole time for the purpose of studying Torah in a recognized yeshiva institute, and not be employed in any work in which salary would be provided. The Finance Ministry of Israel demonstrated data which indicates an unreasonable rise in the number of exempt young men. According to that data the number of the students grew in the extent of 237% between the years 1985–1998, while the number of young men growth at the same period was 354%. This disproportional increase, creating an economical and a security burden on the other sectors of the Israeli population, led to an appeal to the Israeli Supreme Court.

The Tal committee was appointed after the Supreme Court determined that the minister of defense had no authority to determine the extent of the exempts from army service given to ultra-orthodox yeshiva students. The ruling also elaborated on the need for a legislative solution, dealing with all aspects of the issue. Other committees before the Tal committee had tried to resolve the matter, including the Cohen committee and the Israeli committee.

Members

The committee was chaired by former Supreme Court Justice Tzvi Tal, and its members were Cabinet Secretary Isaac Herzog, attorney Yaakov Weinrot, Deputy Director General of the Ministry of Defense Haim Israeli, Secretary of the Committee for Yeshivot in Eretz Yisrael Rabbi Asher Tenenboim, former head of the IDF’s Manpower Directorate Moshe Nativ, Mayor of Hadera and former Police Major General Israel Sadan, deputy legal advisor to the defense system Rachel Stuvitzky, Mayor of Bnei Brak Rabbi Mordechai Kerlitz, and Deputy Attorney General Yehoshua Shufman.

Goals

The goals of the committee as they were declared when it was appointed were:

1. To recommend the appropriate way in the legislation which would entitle the defense minister to provide exemptions or postponements from army service.
2. The exemption or postponement should be applied without a limitation of the number of yeshiva students, because there was no intention to prevent them from continuing their studies.
3. To look into the development of possible alternative frameworks for ultra-Orthodox citizens and recommend how the defense minister should act in this regard. Discussed were the possibility of lowering the age of exemption from military service, minimal military training, and relevant training for ultra-Orthodox citizens choosing to integrate into the job market, taking into consideration the possibilities and needs of the IDF.

Goals which the committee itself formulated:

1. The committee saw its main point in finding a proper agreement.
2. Finding a solution which would be practical and not theoretical.
3. Creating a way to prevent the alienation and the social distance of the ultra-Orthodox population in Israel from the other Israeli population groups.

Tal Law

In April 2000 the committee presented its report, which served as a basis for the legislation of the Deferral of Military Service for Yeshiva Students Law, also called the Tal Law on March 7, 2001. On July 23, 2002, the Tal Law in an expanded and updated version was passed in the Knesset by a majority of 51 against 41. It is a temporary law and needs to be renewed every five years. The bill enables a continuation of the exempts to yeshiva students which is subject to the detailed conditions within the bill. Yeshiva students have the option to defer their military service until they are 22. When they reach that age, they are provided with a “decision year” in which they can perform a year of vocational training, and then decide whether to join the army for a minimum of 16 months followed by annual reserve duty, or to perform a year of unpaid civil service, if they decide not to continue to study fulltime. In addition to that, the bill also ruled that the IDF's Orthodox units would need to be expanded like the Orthodox Nahal units. It also recommended that those included in the arrangement be carefully supervised and checked while enforcing the set conditions. The leadership of the yeshivas were demanded to cooperate on these matters. After the law was passed, the Movement for Quality Government submitted a petition to the High Court, demanding the law be annulled.

Failure of the Tal Law

In July 2005, three years after the law took effect, the state admitted—in a response to a petition to the Supreme Court—that the law had failed to change enlistment arrangements for Orthodox Jews as only a few dozen had enlisted to the army as a result of the law. Tzvi Tal responded that the state did not do anything to enforce the law. Also, state representatives announced that propositions planned for enforcement, mainly optional exchange of national service for army service for Orthodox Jews, were not implemented. The minister of justice constituted the omissions of the Tal Law in the letter to the Israeli prime minister.

The failure of the law is resonant because during the period of its application, a considerable budgetary transmission worsening applied to Jewish Orthodox families, mainly in children's pensions. However, this did not become an inducement to departure from the yeshivas.

On May 11, 2006, the Supreme Court determined that the Tal Law contradicts with the human dignity of those who serve in the Israeli Army, and that the law was implemented in a vague way that did not constitute a "worthy purpose" that would justify damage to rights of those who serve. However, the court determined that the law should be left untouched for an additional year and a half to see if its application would improve. Two judges held a minority opinion. Judge Mishael Cheshin determined that the law was illegitimate from its foundation, and completely contradicts the values of Israel as a Jewish democratic state, and Judge Asher Grunis spoke against the Supreme Court, saying that it shouldn't interfere with Knesset decisions unless they damage rights of minorities, whereas in this case the damaged part is the majority, which must take care of its own rights.

On July 18, 2007 the Knesset decided to extend the Tal Law another five years until August 2012. As a result of this decision, the Movement for Quality Government petitioned the High Court again. Paradoxically, the petition promoted the law’s implementation, as the state tried to prove that it does encourage military or civil service. But according to the data submitted to the court, only a few more ultra-Orthodox men served in the IDF.

In January 2012, a mock military camp was errected in Tel Aviv to protest against the Tal Law.

On February 21, 2012, Israel's High Court of Justice ruled the Tal Law unconstitutional with six to three votes. Outgoing High Court President Dorit Beinisch who supported the ruling wrote in her opinion that “apart from a certain improvement in the implementation of the law, one cannot say that the law’s means achieved their goals, and it seems that certain blocs influence its potential to be fully fulfilled. That being the case, one cannot but determine that the law is unconstitutional... Originally the legislation harbored the hope that the law would launch a social process that without coercion would encourage ultra-Orthodox people to serve in the military or take part in national civil service. These hopes were dashed.” In a minority opinion, incoming president Asher Grunis who was among those who opposed the ruling said that “it would have been best if the court didn’t have to deal with the issue; if it had been left in the public sphere beyond the court’s jurisdiction.” In his opinion, “the fact that this court dealt again and again with the issue of Haredi military service, without any progress being made as a result of the court’s ruling, does not add much to the standing of the High Court.”

The Movement for Quality Government and Meretz, which had submitted the petition to the High Court, welcomed the decision, as well as many Members of Knesset, among them Kadima‏'s Tzipi Livni, Shaul Mofaz, and Yohanan Plesner, and Likud‏'s Tzipi Hotovely.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu announced that he “will formulate a new bill that would guarantee a more equal sharing of the burden of all parts of Israeli society.” Defense Minister Ehud Barak also stated that a new law has to be passed so that all citizens equally share society’s burdens. Interior Minister Eli Yishai said that “together with the Defense and Justice ministries, we will come up with a new law to regulate the status of the yeshiva students, whose contribution to the Jewish people and the State of Israel is obvious to any Jewish believer”. Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman had expressed his objections to extending the Tal Law before the High Court ruling.

According to news reports, it is expected that the ruling will force the Knesset to recraft the law, or that the Defense Ministry will offer a new deal to ultra-Orthodox men.

See also

• Religion in Israel
• Status quo (Israel)
• Torah study commandment
• Torato Omanuto - The special arrangement for yeshiva students allowing postponements or special exemptions from the Israel Defence Forces (IDF) compulsory service.
• Hesder - combining the Torah study practice and Military service.
• Sherut Leumi - National Service in Isael
• Haredi Judaism
• Hardal
• Netzah Yehuda Battalion