NGOs to petition High Court if haredi yeshivas open before state schools

The haredi parties are reportedly seeking to implement a plan whereby they would agree to lockdowns of haredi cities as long as schools and yeshivas for boys and young men in the sector could reopen.

By JEREMY SHARON
Rabbi Baruch Mordechai Ezrachi delivers a torah lesson at Ateret Yisrael Yeshiva in Jerusalem, November 19, 2019. (photo credit: AHARON KROHN/FLASH90)
Rabbi Baruch Mordechai Ezrachi delivers a torah lesson at Ateret Yisrael Yeshiva in Jerusalem, November 19, 2019.
(photo credit: AHARON KROHN/FLASH90)
The religious freedom NGO Hiddush says it will file a petition to the High Court of Justice against any government decision which allows ultra-Orthodox schools and yeshivas to return to their studies before the state school system which is currently shuttered due to the COVID-19 crisis.
The ultra-Orthodox parties are reportedly seeking to implement a plan whereby they would agree to lockdowns of ultra-Orthodox cities as long as schools and yeshivas for boys and young men in the sector could reopen.
Ultra-Orthodox girls schools would not reopen and boys would use their empty classrooms to reduce class sizes.
Hiddush director Rabbi Uri Regev sent a letter to the prime minister, health minister, education minister and attorney-general stating that as long as the relevant authorities are of the opinion that opening educational institutions is dangerous enough to justify keeping them closed, the government must not allow institutions in the ultra-Orthodox sector to open.
Regev also insisted that the proposal itself to keep girls’ schools shuttered in order to allow boys schools to open was discriminatory and unlawful.
“Any discrimination in the education system is fundamentally illegitimate, whether between ultra-Orthodox and others, whether between boys and girls, whether it is any other form of discrimination,” wrote Regev.
“Any decision of the coronavirus cabinet at this difficult time requires total equality for all Israelis pupils from all sectors, Jews and non-Jews, the completely secular and the ultra-Orthodox, and boys and girls.”
He said that if any discriminatory decision is made regarding the reopening of schools, including “the ongoing policy of authorities to turn a blind eye to institutions which blatantly violate the coronavirus regulations,” Hiddush would appeal to the High Court to prevent it being implemented.
Similarly, the Israel Be Free secularist organization also threatened to petition the High Court over such a decision, saying such a policy would amount to “the politicization of decisions regarding public health.”
Israel Be Free director Uri Keidar wrote in his letter to Health Minister Yuli Edelstein that his organization would fight any decision which exempts ultra-Orthodox yeshivas from the national closure imposed on the general education system in the relevant courts.