NGO seeks ruling on draft-linked tax discounts after Sa’ar appointed interior minister

The government approved Foreign Minister Gideon Sa'ar's appointment as interior minister on Wednesday, ending more than a year without a serving minister and prompting NGO Israel Hofsheet to ask the High Court of Justice to require an overdue decision on municipal-tax discounts for people who have not regularized their military-service status.The organization asked the court to give Sa'ar until November 25 to decide whether and how to make the discounts conditional on resolving that status with the military. The government had attributed the delay to the absence of an interior minister authorized to act.“With an interior minister appointed, the only reason given for not implementing the instruction no longer applies,” Israel Hofsheet wrote.In its April 26 decision on enforcement of military-service obligations, the High Court ordered the interior minister, or an acting minister responsible for the matter, to consider and decide within 35 days whether and how to amend the municipal property tax (arnona) discount regulations. The proposed condition would apply to people called up for service who had not regularized their status with the IDF.According to Israel Hofsheet, the May 31 deadline passed without this required decision.