From the Liveblog of
Monday, April 8, 2024
High Court rejects petition filed by Likud MK Dudi Amsalem demanding Gallant draft Israeli Arabs into the IDF
Add ToI as a Preferred Source on GoogleJeremy Sharon is The Times of Israel’s legal affairs and settlements reporter
The High Court of Justice rejects a highly unusual petition filed by cabinet minister Dudi Amsalem against Defense Minister Yoav Gallant and Attorney General Gali Baharav-Miara, demanding that they act to draft Israeli Arab citizens into military service.
Amsalem filed his petition against a fellow member of the cabinet in which he himself serves against the background of the ultra-Orthodox enlistment crisis and Gallant’s position insisting on firmer legislation than the key ultra-Orthodox coalition parties will tolerate, threatening the stability of the coalition.
The court upbraids Amsalem for deficiencies in his petition, noting that he has filed a series of similar petitions to the High Court in recent years, including on the issue of Arab enlistment, all of which have been rejected without hearings, since they lacked the necessary evidentiary basis or did not bother to seek a response from the subject of the petition before it was filed.
The court notes that, in this petition too, Amsalem failed to request a response to his concerns from Gallant and the attorney general. In his previous petition on Arab enlistment in 2022, Amsalem did ultimately send a letter to then-defense minister Benny Gantz and appended that letter to his current petition as evidence of his efforts to have his concerns addressed by the relevant minister.
But the three justices assigned the petition, including strong conservative Noam Sohlberg, say this letter does not suffice, since a new Knesset was elected and a new government took office in the meantime, and that two years passed after that petition was filed. They therefore reject Amsalem’s latest petition without requiring responses from the respondents or holding court hearings.
Amsalem, a fierce Netanyahu loyalist and vitriolic critic of the judiciary, denounces the decision, saying on X: “It’s unthinkable that instead of being a country with a High Court we’re a High Court which has a country,” and adding “In the kingdom of hypocrites hatred of Jews overcomes all justice and logic.”
The Times of Israel Community.