The Supreme Court halted at the last moment the evacuation of Ponevez Yeshiva in Bnei Brak

The Supreme Court ordered on Tuesday to postpone until further notice the evacuation of members and students of the sect identified with Rabbi Shmuel Markowitz from the grounds of Ponevez Yeshiva in Bnei Brak, one day before the scheduled date for the evacuation to be carried out.

The ruling was given following an appeal petition filed by the petitioners against the ruling of the District Court, which confirmed the arbitration ruling in the long-running dispute at the yeshiva. Along with the appeal petition an application was filed for a stay of execution pending the ruling on the petition. According to the report, this is currently only a stay of execution, not a ruling on the appeal petition or the claims of the parties themselves.

According to the petitioners, rights set in a final ruling from 2000 were "revoked" retroactively through "certain conditions" which according to them were not written in the original ruling at all. They further argued that the ruling was based on an estoppel claim that was not raised against them in a way that allowed them to respond to it, and they demand that the Supreme Court overturn the arbitration ruling that was confirmed in the District Court.

According to the petitioners, carrying out the ruling at the scheduled date would have resulted in evacuations of 1,266 students and advanced students, including hundreds of minors and students living in the boarding school of the yeshiva.

The Association of Ponevez Yeshiva Students hailed the ruling. "We welcome the Supreme Court's decision to halt a reckless and unprecedented evacuation of approximately 1,300 yeshiva students, among them minors who would have found themselves on the street, without being given the minimum time to find an alternative place," the association said.