From the Liveblog of
Tuesday, February 11, 2025
Labor Ministry told to halt daycare subsidies for Haredi draft dodgers by end of month
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"
The Attorney General’s Office informs the Labor and Welfare Ministry that it must halt daycare subsidies for the children of ultra-Orthodox men who did not serve in the military by the end of the month in line with a November ruling by the High Court of Justice.
In a letter to the ministry’s director general, Deputy Attorney General Gil Limon writes that the subsidies must end by February 28, following a three-month extension granted by the court.
Last summer, the court ruled that ultra-Orthodox yeshiva students were obligated to perform military service after the law for blanket military exemptions expired. In the same ruling, the court determined that the state cannot fund such students if they don’t enlist. Attorney General Gali Baharav-Miara said this meant that ultra-Orthodox families could not receive child daycare subsidies if the father had not served.
In response, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s ultra-Orthodox allies demanded the passage of a law to circumvent the ruling but it was ultimately removed from the Knesset agenda after it became clear it did not have majority support.
Addressing the issue, Labor and Welfare Committee chairman Yisrael Eichler (UTJ) accuses the High Court of launching an attack on the Haredi community “for political reasons” and insists that the subsidy must not be halted.
The court “ruled that not all Israeli children are equal in receiving daycare subsidies,” he says.
“I submitted a bill to enshrine the mother’s rights to subsidies so that she can earn a living and work, regardless of what the husband does. If a husband is in prison, no one will deny the wife’s right to daycare subsidies for her child.”
