Government nixes vote on daycare subsidies for Haredi draft evaders after losing majority
PM orders move after 9 coalition lawmakers, including Likud MKs, say they’ll vote against bill seen by critics as effort to circumvent ultra-Orthodox enlistment in IDF
Sam Sokol is the Times of Israel's political correspondent. He was previously a reporter for the Jerusalem Post, Jewish Telegraphic Agency and Haaretz. He is the author of "Putin’s Hybrid War and the Jews"
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu ordered on Tuesday a contentious piece of legislation pushed for by his ultra-Orthodox coalition partners to be pulled from a Knesset vote Wednesday after it became clear it did not have majority support.
In a brief statement, Netanyahu said he had instructed coalition chairman Ofir Katz to remove the so-called Daycare Bill from the Knesset agenda, without elaborating on the future of the legislation.
The move came after it emerged in recent days that several coalition lawmakers would not vote in favor of the bill, which sought to circumvent a High Court ruling preventing state-funded daycare subsidies from going to the children of ultra-Orthodox men who did not serve in the military.
On Monday evening, Likud MK Yuli Edelstein, the chairman of the powerful Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee, declared that he would not support the bill, stating that during a time of war, Israel’s leaders are “obligated to make every effort to provide the IDF with additional soldiers.”
As such, “I will not lend my hand to the Daycare Law, nor to any law that attempts to circumvent our ceaseless efforts to expand the conscription base in the State of Israel,” Edelstein said in a video statement sent to the press.
His statement came on the heels of similar expressions of opposition by fellow Likud MKs Moshe Saada and Dan Illouz. Immigration Minister Ofir Sofer, a Religious Zionism MK, also came out against the bill, telling Army Radio that the measure “won’t be advanced before there is progress on the enlistment law.”
In addition, Minister Gideon Sa’ar, the chairman of the coalition’s New Hope party, said Sunday that his party’s four lawmakers would also vote against the legislation when it comes up for a Knesset vote.
“The enactment of the law during the current state of affairs will convey a message of encouraging evasion from service in the IDF and will assist in doing so,” he tweeted, calling on the government to “strive to carry out significant moves that increase the participation of all sections of the public” in military service.
Deputy Minister Avi Maoz, of the far-right Noam party, said Tuesday that he also intended to vote against the legislation in the Knesset, noting his efforts to “correct the injustice and discrimination” against reservists from the national religious community, who have been heavily called upon to serve and have suffered relatively heavy casualties.
In total, nine lawmakers indicated they would oppose the bill. The coalition holds an eight-seat majority, and Defense Minister Yoav Gallant was also widely expected to vote against the law.
The government advanced the proposed law on Sunday in the Ministerial Committee for Legislation ahead of what was expected to be a preliminary reading in the Knesset this week.
The legislation, which was submitted last week, aims to guarantee that the children of ultra-Orthodox men who are obligated to perform military service, but have not done so, will continue to be eligible for state-paid daycare subsidies. It aims to circumvent a High Court of Justice ruling that such financial support is illegal in cases where the father should be serving in the Israel Defense Forces but is not.
UTJ demanded the bill’s swift passage after backing down from a threat to derail government budget talks unless the coalition immediately passed a law enshrining the widespread exemption of Haredi yeshiva students from military service.
If the bill does not pass this week, it remains to be seen how the Haredi parties will move forward with the budget vote and other coalition demands.
The bill is highly controversial, with critics asserting that it would continue to encourage ultra-Orthodox men not to perform military service even as the IDF faces severe manpower shortages after a yearlong multifront war against the Hamas and Hezbollah terror groups.
It has been called “unconstitutional” by the Attorney General’s Office, which has argued that “the principle of equality will be harmed through state and institutional encouragement of avoiding conscription into the IDF.”
Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich’s Religious Zionism party was still on the fence regarding the bill, conditioning its support on the addition of language enshrining preferential treatment for the families of IDF reservists.
Religious Zionism MKs Moshe Solomon and Ohad Tal both denied opposing the bill on Tuesday afternoon, only hours after reports indicated that the pair planned to vote against it.
In a joint statement, the two lawmakers stated that there had been “negotiations throughout the morning between [UTJ] MK Yisrael Eichler and Religious Zionism.” Eichler initiated the legislation.
Times of Israel staff contributed to this report.
