From the Liveblog of
Monday, November 18, 2024
High Court hears petition on Daycare Bill linked to ultra-Orthodox draft dodgers
Jeremy Sharon is The Times of Israel’s legal affairs and settlements reporter
The High Court of Justice is hearing petitions against Labor Minister Yoav Ben Tzur’s refusal to publish funding criteria for child daycare subsidies for this school year, in protest of the attorney general’s instructions that the ministry cannot grant the subsidy to families in which the father is a full-time ultra-Orthodox yeshiva student who is currently obligated to perform military service, but has not done so.
Ben Tzur’s stance has held up the disbursement of some NIS 200 million to child daycare centers according to Ynet, causing severe problems for the organizations running the daycare centers and families that need the subsidy to send their children there.
At the same time, the court is also hearing a petition by the Emet L’Yaakov organization which argues that the attorney general’s position is harming the welfare of ultra-Orthodox working mothers and their children.
The legal motions follow a High Court ruling in June this year that after the law for ultra-Orthodox military service exemptions for yeshiva students expired at the end of June 2023 there was no legal framework for such exemptions and that such men were required to perform military service, and that financial support for such students was also illegal by extension.
In court, Justice Ofer Grosskopf challenges the position of Emet L’Yaakov, saying the state could not obligate people to perform military service with one hand and with the other give them subsidies to help them avoid performing military service.
Zalman Black, an attorney representing Emet L’Yaakov, argues however that there is no direct connection between the issue of enlistment and the issue of the daycare subsidies, and that therefore the attorney general’s instructions not to fund daycare subsidies for the children of Haredi men who have not performed military service was illegitimate.
Attorney Adiah Shinvald representing the Berl Katznelson Foundation, one of the petitioners against Ben Tzur, insists that the minister cannot refuse to publish the funding criteria due to his argument with the attorney general.
“The ministry, due to funding arguments, is holding up the subsidy for 70,000 toddlers. This is an entire community of people who really need the subsidy and are being used as a negotiating chip,” says Shinvald.
