Shas accuses AG of child abuse after she cuts daycare subsidies for Haredi draft dodgers
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 ultra-Orthodox Shas party accuses Attorney General Gali Baharav-Miara of engaging in legal “abuse” of Haredi children after she ordered Labor Minister Yoav Ben-Tzur to cut daycare subsidies for the children of yeshiva students who refuse to obey military draft orders.
“The decision to deny working ultra-Orthodox mothers the subsidy for daycare, three weeks before the start of the school year, just because the husband studies Torah, is cruel legal bullying and abuse of helpless children,” Shas states. The party calls the move a “mark of Cain on the forehead of the legal system, which is supposed to be the protector and supporter for women who have decided to enter the workforce and contribute to the Israeli economy.”
“The purpose of the subsidy is to encourage women’s employment,” Shas continues, stating that Haredi women have “the highest female employment rate in the OECD” and that the decision to cancel the subsidy will “set them back.”
Among OECD countries, the average labor force participation for women aged 15-64 stands at 66.6 percent. According to the Israel Democracy Institute, in 2021 78% of Haredi women and 51% of Haredi men participated in the workforce.
Many Haredi women work to support their families while their husbands study Torah in yeshivas.
