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| By Israel Insider staff and partners May 11, 2006 |
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Israel's Supreme Court on Thursday upheld a law allowing ultra-Orthodox Israelis exemptions from army service, officials said, leaving intact a measure that has strained relations between religious and secular Israelis.
Petitioners against the law had hoped the court would cancel it and require the religious Jews to serve in the military, as most eligible Israelis do. The so-called Tal Law allows at least 30,000 ultra-Orthodox men not to serve based on the claim that religious studies are their profession.
The nine-judge panel criticized the law, saying that it "causes serious harm to the human dignity of the majority who are obligated to do national service," the Haaretz daily's Web site reported. However, the judges said the law is not illegal.
Uri Keidar, a representative of the secular-rights Meretz Party, said the ruling dealt a blow to those fighting for equality among sectors of the Israeli population. Meretz had appealed to cancel the law.
"The law so severely damages equal rights in Israel," Keidar told Army Radio.
All eligible Israeli men and women are required to serve in the military, men for three years and women for two.
Exemptions for the ultra-Orthodox go back to the founding of Israel in 1948. But the numbers of people seeking exemptions has ballooned in recent years, drawing resentment from secular Israelis forced to serve.
The ultra-Orthodox account for about 14 percent of Israel's 7 million people. Tens of thousands of observant Jews serve in the military, in contrast to the insular ultra-Orthodox.
AP contributed to this report.
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