A panel of seven High Court of Justice judges, chaired by President of the Supreme Court Asher Grunis, has ruled that, from the end of 2014, the government may no longer provide "scholarships for study and to encourage integration in the labor force by yeshiva students." The judges unanimously accepted the petition by the National Union of Israeli Students, Hiddush for Religious Freedom and Equality, the Center for Jewish Pluralism, and other organizations.
The organizations filed the petition in January 2011, after the government decided on a new budget regulation, following the Supreme Court's June 2010 ruling, in the Yekutieli case which banned budget preferences for yeshiva students over university students. It ruled that the preferential budgets, such as income support, for yeshiva students violated the principle of equality, compared with university students, who were ineligible for them.
The new budget regulation was anchored in a government decision and in a clause in the budget laws in 2011-14. The amount to "guarantee minimum income for yeshiva students" totaled NIS 110 million in 2011 and NIS 109 million in 2012.
This is the Supreme Court's 13th ruling that voids primary Knesset legislation.
Published by Globes [online], Israel business news - www.globes-online.com - on May 25, 2014
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