From the Liveblog of
Wednesday, November 6, 2024
Likud MK Illouz stripped of committee post over opposition to Daycare Bill
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"
Coalition chairman Ofir Katz announces that following Likud MK Dan Illouz’s “statements regarding coalition discipline and his conduct in recent days,” he will be replaced on the Knesset Economic Affairs and Foreign Affairs and Defense Committees.
The freshman lawmaker will also be barred from submitting private bills for the next month and a half.
Illouz had come out publicly against the coalition-supported Daycare Bill, which 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-funded daycare subsidies.
Writing on X last week, Illouz insisted that “there will be no enlistment [of Haredim] without significant personal sanctions.”
“Exempting such a large group from the duty to serve in the IDF in such a critical period is a non-Zionist act that is unworthy of us as a nation — whether it be called ‘the enlistment law’ or ‘the daycare law,’ whose purpose is to cancel the daycares sanction and restore the funding,” he declared.
Illouz did not respond to a request for comment.
