PM asks High Court for 30-day extension on Haredi draft, touts ‘considerable progress’ on plan

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu writes to the High Court of Justice requesting a 30-day extension to the deadline for presenting the court with a plan to increase ultra-Orthodox conscription.

This is the fourth extension the government has requested in the last 24 hours to the court’s deadline for the state to file its response to petitions demanding the immediate conscription of ultra-Orthodox yeshiva students.

Earlier today, the state requested a two-hour extension to tell the High Court how it will resolve the issue, after requesting a half-day extension at close to midnight on Wednesday night. The original deadline for the state to file its response was March 24, but the state then requested a three-day extension, which the court agreed to.

Having blown past these deadlines, Netanyahu personally pens a letter to the court today saying that “considerable progress” had been made on finding a formula to resolve the decades-long legal and societal quandary but that the government needs just another 30 days to draw up this plan.

The prime minister says that because of the ongoing war, his government has been unable to dedicate the necessary time to finding a solution to the longstanding problem.

Netanyahu adds that the arrangement being formulated would establish “tracks and frameworks which would allow those enlisting to preserve their lifestyle throughout their service,” adding notably that it would also “ensure that those for whom ‘their Torah is their trade’ will be able to study Torah.”

“For these reasons I request from the honorable court that it not make a decision on the issue of enlistment and all the questions connected to it for the next 30 days, in order to allow us to finally formulate the agreements and complete the professional staff work and regulate the necessary tracks and frameworks,” Netanyahu tells the High Court.