Aug 3

👉🏽 Multiple Coalition members announced they’ll not abide by the decision if the Supreme Court strikes down incapacitation. The Court is deciding whether to invalidate an amendment to “Basic Law: The Government” which forbids the court from removing a sitting prime minister, and permits only the Knesset to do so and only for medical reasons and with a 2/3 supermajority. The case is important because it is precedent for under what circumstances in general the court can rule on an amendment to a basic law - like unreasonableness, which the court will hear in September. (Coalition members not holding by a Supreme Court decision could also signal a constitutional crisis.)

👉🏽 Maariv reporting that Likud Social Equality Minister Amichai Chikli and Likud Justice Minister Yariv Levin proposed a law to allocate just one plot of land regardless of how many wives in a family, aimed at Bedouin polygamy. Polygamy is illegal in Israel, but until now Bedouin polygamy has been ignored. The Bedouins say the new law, just passed, won’t affect polygamy and rather will force women into poverty; they are calling it “cultural apartheid.”

👉🏽 Channel 12 reporting that Israeli police intending to kick out 1000 police volunteers for their participation in protests; 10 volunteer officers already cut. Another 54 volunteer officers have requested a freeze of their volunteer service. There are close to 25,000 police volunteers.

👉🏽 Haredi men will soon be able to enter the work face, and still get their government yeshiva stipends without fear of army service, at age 21, rather than the age 26 the law currently allows, according to cabinet secretary Yossi Fuchs in an interview with Mishpacha magazine. Fuchs said the government would pass the draft exemption as a basic law, so that it would be “immune to judicial review.” Globes said government stipends are paid out to 150,000 Haredim and cost taxpayers 1.2 billion nis, $326 million annually, as of 2020.

According to a recent Israeli Democracy Institute paper on the topic, the ultra-Orthodox now constitute 13.5% of Israeli society, and 18% among those of conscription age. The community doubles in size every 16 years.

https://en.idi.org.il/articles/49508

👉🏽 Kan News reports that the Israeli Medical Association warning over 500 doctors expected to leave Israel; emergency meeting between Director General of the Miniatry of Health Moshe Bar Siman Tov and the heads of Israel’s health system. Over 3,000 doctors discussing relocation on WhatsApp.

👉🏽 Maariv reports that Shas is attempting to abolish the independence of the National Council for Food Security, and to provide more food stamps to the Haredi sector. Labor MK Naama Lazimi is appealing to legal adviser to the governmen Gali Beharev Miara to intervene.

🇮🇱