Israel’s Supreme Court, sitting as the High Court of Justice, rejected another petition by Abraham Haddad against the Education Ministry and senior officials in the state religious education system. Haddad had asked the court to suspend the head of the state religious education administration and the national inspector for elementary school rabbis, alleging that they acted unlawfully in previous roles.
The petition again attacked the practice of closing classes in state religious schools in the days leading up to the “Shabbat HaOrgani” events of the youth movements Bnei Akiva, Ariel and Ezra. Haddad argued that the schools were being shut without making up the required school days.
Justice Yael Wilner wrote the ruling with the agreement of Justices David Mintz and Ruth Ronen. She said the issue had been raised and decided many times before, and that Haddad’s earlier petitions on the same matter had already been dismissed. The court ruled that he is barred by res judicata from reopening the same claims in new proceedings.
The judgment quoted an earlier decision in Haddad’s case saying he was trying to “break through a door that has already been closed to him again and again.” It also said that, given the many rulings over the years, he now faces “a high wall of bolts and bars” preventing further litigation on the same issue. The court added that if the practice itself cannot be challenged because of prior rulings, there is no basis to seek the suspension of officials who acted or supported it. The petition was dismissed, and Haddad was ordered to pay NIS 2,500 in costs to the state treasury.
