The legal battle against the economic sanctions being imposed on the Chareidi public is escalating, and last week, the Emes L’Yaakov B’Yisrael organization filed a petition to the Supreme Court on Thursday, demanding an immediate halt to the “economic punishment campaign” against Chareidi families, which is being advanced by Attorney General Gali Baharav-Miara without any legal basis.

In an interview with Kol Chai Radio, Attorney and Rabbi Yehuda Stern, a Dayan and To’en Rabbani who submitted the petition, explained the arguments behind it. Stern accused the legal advisory system of blatantly disregarding basic democratic and legal norms. “This is collective punishment of an entire public, something unthinkable in any proper legal system,” Stern said.

One of the central claims raised in the interview concerns the deliberate concealment of information by the Attorney General’s office. Stern noted the letter written by Cabinet Secretary Yossi Fuchs, stating that the Attorney General received professional opinions warning that the sanctions would not lead to the enlistment of Chareidim but rather to economic devastation. Baharav-Miara did not submit the letter to the Court.

“The Attorney General simply omits the professional positions that don’t align with her agenda,” Stern said. “This is an extreme lack of integrity and the presentation of a distorted picture to the Court.”

Stern also emphasized the double standard between different populations in Israeli society. He referred to a Supreme Court ruling that struck down a Knesset law denying benefits to parents of minors convicted of terrorism, on the grounds that social welfare tools cannot be used for punishment or for the ‘education’ of the public. “Suddenly, when it comes to bnei yeshivos, all these principles are forgotten, and sanctions are imposed on people in their 40s who have no connection to the draft age,” he said.

At the end of the interview, Stern referred to data presented in the Knesset by Brig. Gen. Shay Taib, showing that most draft evaders today are not from the Chareidi public. He questioned why benefits were not revoked from universities where hundreds of thousands of students did not report for reserve duty, while the Torah world is facing an unprecedented economic attack.

“We are doing our part to peel back the mask from the Supreme Court,” Stern concluded. “The question now lies before the justices: how will they justify this blatant discrimination between lomdei Torah and other sectors?”

(YWN Israel Desk—Jerusalem)