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. The group said the state’s own updates showed that the preparatory work had already been completed: Attorney-General Gali Baharav-Miara had accepted that the minister could amend the regulations, and the ministry’s legal adviser had submitted draft regulations on May 18.
NGO seeks November 25 deadline for decision on draft-linked tax discounts
In an October 22 update, the state said the matter had still not advanced and that a proposal to transfer the authority had not been brought before the government, according to the filing.
Israel Hofsheet is asking for both a ministerial decision and a state update by November 25, including the reasons and, if regulations are amended, when they will take effect.
Sa’ar will retain the foreign affairs portfolio. His appointment comes in Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s outgoing government, after the October 27 election and Tuesday’s swearing-in of the new Knesset, while Yashar leader Gadi Eisenkot works to assemble a replacement government.
President Isaac Herzog gave Eisenkot the mandate on Sunday after parties representing 67 lawmakers recommended him, including Arab parties Ra’am and the Joint List. Netanyahu’s electoral bloc won 53 seats, Eisenkot’s bloc 48, and the two Arab parties a combined 19.
Haredi conscription dispute complicates Eisenkot's coalition talks
Military conscription remains a central obstacle in efforts to bring ultra-Orthodox (haredi) parties into an Eisenkot-led government. Shas, whose Moshe Arbel previously held the Interior Ministry, reiterated on Tuesday that it supported Netanyahu and was not negotiating with another candidate. United Torah Judaism, which declined to recommend a candidate to Herzog, has been involved in talks with Eisenkot’s camp.
The vacancy began after Arbel resigned in July 2025 and Justice Minister Yariv Levin’s subsequent temporary appointment expired in October. Sa’ar previously served as interior minister from 2013 to 2014.
During the vacancy, the government repeatedly transferred individual powers to Netanyahu to address urgent needs. Other decisions remained without anyone legally authorized to make them.
The ministry’s staff and agencies continued working. But officials could not make every decision reserved by law for the minister, and the ministry lacked a minister to set policy and represent it during cabinet and budget discussions.
Government documents submitted in High Court proceedings described humanitarian residency applications awaiting decisions, difficulties approving foreign caregivers, trained personnel unable to begin exercising their powers, and municipal decisions requiring special arrangements.
Local authorities faced obstacles over permission to take out loans, make certain changes to municipal taxes, and distribute funding. In August, government lawyers acknowledged that gaps remained, including the ministerial authority to issue municipal revenue-sharing orders.
Follow us on GoogleSource: The Jerusalem Post · SARAH BEN-NUN
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