The Knesset Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee decided Wednesday to extend by five years a law allowing full-time yeshiva students to defer their military service. The Knesset plenum will vote on the extension before it goes into effect.

Meretz Chairman Yossi Beilin slammed the decision. He said the committee exposed itself as a "disgraceful and shaming alliance between religious Zionists, religious anti-Zionists, and coalition members."

"Only a law that treats everyone equally will end 60 years of discrimination," he continued.

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The law allows yeshiva students over age 22 to take one year off from their studies, during which they can work without being drafted. At the end of the year, the students must choose between returning to full-time yeshiva studies or serving in the Israel Defense Forces.

The Barak administration established the Tal Committee in 1999 to resolve problems surrounding draft exemptions for yeshiva students. The subsequent law took effect only in August 2002.

The committee decided to lengthen the law, which expires at the end of the month, by the maximum amount legally allowed. Six MKs voted for the extension, while three opposed.

Committee Chair Tzahi Hanegbi said he would have actually favored extending the law by only three years, but the options were limited to either two years or five.

The High Court issued a stinging criticism of the Tal Law a year ago, and experts say that each time the law is extended, chances of the court annulling it increase.

The law states that if the Knesset wishes to lengthen its validity, it has to complete the legislative process six months before it expires. This means that the Knesset should have gone through with the extension this past January.

The Knesset's legal advisor attorney Nurit Elstein ruled in January that it didn't have to reapprove the law then. She said it was enough to discuss it and then pass it on to the Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee in order to amend certain clauses.