Haredi parties threaten legislation boycott if bill to restore daycare subsidies not advanced

By Sam Sokol 15 June 2026, 1:16 pm

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Sam Sokol is a former political correspondent at The Times of Israel. 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"

Degel HaTorah chair Moshe Gafni (R) and United Torah Judaism party chair Yitzhak Goldknopf attend a plenum session at the Knesset in Jerusalem, January 14, 2026 (Yonatan Sindel/Flash90)

The Knesset’s ultra-Orthodox parties may boycott additional coalition legislation to protest an expected lack of advancement of a bill restoring daycare subsidies to the children of Haredi draft evaders.

According to Hebrew-language reports, the coalition is not expected to bring the so-called Daycare Law to the plenum this afternoon, following its approval by the Knesset Finance Committee last week, due to Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich’s Religious Zionism party’s opposition to the measure.

If the bill does not advance to the plenum today, the United Torah Judaism party is considering supporting an opposition-backed no-confidence motion against the government, says the Haredi news site Emess — which quotes a party source insisting that without a vote this afternoon, coalition whip Ofir Katz “must bring the Knesset dissolution to a third reading on Wednesday.”

In addition, Channel 12 reports that the Haredi parties, which are already preventing the passage of the government’s broadcasting bill, are also threatening to block the advancement of Likud-sponsored legislation to establish a political commission of inquiry into the events of October 7, 2023.

i24 news reports that Religious Zionism will discuss the Daycare Law during its weekly faction meeting in the Knesset this afternoon.

In August 2024, Attorney General Gali Baharav-Miara ordered the Labor Ministry to cut daycare subsidies for the children of ultra-Orthodox yeshiva students who disobey military draft orders, explaining that since the High Court ruled that members of the ultra-Orthodox community must be inducted into the army, there was no longer a legal basis for the state to fund daycare for those who don’t comply. The Haredi-backed legislation is an attempt to circumvent the attorney general’s orders.