The High Court of Justice dismissed a Shas petition seeking to revive a state-funded conference in memory of Rabbi Ovadia Yosef, on Wednesday, after the Religious Services Ministry said it could no longer hold the event as planned.
The judges did not decide whether Attorney-General Gali Baharav-Miara was right to require the conference’s postponement until after the October 27 election. They said the dispute over the planned event had become theoretical once the ministry said it lacked the time to organize it.
The three-day conference had been planned for October 6-8, to take place at Jerusalem’s International Convention Center (ICC). On Monday, the ministry’s director-general, Yehuda Avidan, informed the Jerusalem Municipality that it was canceled, citing the attorney-general’s position, the time needed to produce the event, and the continuing court proceedings.
At Wednesday’s hearing, Avidan said the ministry might still explore another venue or format if it received legal guidance but could not say whether it would be able to arrange a replacement.
Justice Ofer Grosskopf told him that deciding whether to organize a conference was the ministry’s responsibility and that the court could not order it to hold one.
The judges stressed that the attorney-general’s position concerned the specific October 6-8 event. A different proposal for a publicly funded conference could be considered on its own terms, though the court did not give advance approval for such an eventuality.
Annual commemoration falls less than two weeks before 2026 election
A 2025 law requires the Religious Services Ministry to hold a conference on Yosef’s work on the annual day commemorating him or near it. That day falls on October 14 this year, less than two weeks before the election. Shas argued that moving the conference until after the vote would break the link to the date specified by law.
The ministry had proposed holding it earlier in October, with no party symbols or political speeches. Its legal adviser concluded that those restrictions would allow it to go ahead during the election campaign.
The proposed program extended beyond lectures. Documents accompanying Shas’s petition describe an interactive exhibition, a quiz on Yosef’s religious rulings, a reconstructed gathering featuring recordings of him, a virtual-reality film, and musical performances. The ministry presented these as ways to teach visitors about his religious legacy.
Scale and timing of the government-funded event still posed a risk, AG said
The attorney-general’s office argued that the scale and timing of the government-funded event still posed a risk of election campaigning, particularly because Yosef’s image and legacy feature in Shas’s campaign. It said the conference should be held after the election. Its position did not prevent memorial services and other official ceremonies from taking place on schedule, or privately funded events from being held before the vote.
Shas disputed the suggestion that Yosef’s connection to the party made an event commemorating him into election propaganda. It argued that the ministry’s proposed restrictions would address any risk of political use without postponing an event required by law.
After the hearing, Yosef’s son, former Sephardi chief rabbi Yitzhak Yosef, criticized the court and the attorney-general and called for “a thousand memorial gatherings” across the country. He asked why memorial events for former prime minister Yitzhak Rabin were allowed to proceed and invited people to send him their names so he could pray for them at his father’s grave.
The court had not barred gatherings in Yosef’s memory. Its decision concerned the canceled, state-funded conference.
A Jerusalem community association that sought to join the proceedings took the opposite view from Shas. It argued that the planned program resembled a large public celebration more than the conference required by law, and that government resources should not be used for an event so closely associated with a party during an election campaign.