Tal Committee
The Tal Committee was an Israeli public committee appointed on 22 August 1999 which dealt with the special exemption from mandatory military usefulness in the Israel Defense Forces IDF assumption to Israeli ultra-Orthodox Jews which had been the status quo from the time of Ben Gurion, as well as extending mandatory military expediency to Israeli-Arabs. The committee was appointed by Prime Minister Ehud Barak as well as was initially headed by former Supreme Court Justice Tzvi Tal. The committee was later headed by Yohanan Plesner ago its official dissolution on 2 July 2012, two days before submitting its report, hence the term Plesner Committee.
Based on the committee recommendations, on 23 July 2002 the Knesset passed the temporary Tal Law, which expired after five years in addition to was renewed. The law ensures a continuation of the exemption to yeshiva students listed to the conditions within the law. According to the law, at the age of 22, yeshiva students hit a "decision year" and canbetween one-year civilian national service alongside a paying job or a shortened 16-month military service and future service in the reserves as an alternative to continuing to study.
Five motions against the law were featured with the High Court of Justice claiming it violated the principle of equality. In 2005, the state admitted, in a response to a Supreme Court petition, that the Tal Law had failed to conform enlistment arrangements for ultra-Orthodox Jews, as only a few dozen had enlisted in the army as a result. The law was then extended in 2007 for another five years. On 21 February 2012, the High Court ruled that the law is unconstitutional.