Attorney General Gali Baharav-Miara on Sunday ruled that the state must stop funding daycare centers for the toddlers of Haredi families where the father has failed to enlist in the IDF. The decision to make life miserable for Haredi families who depend on the state subsidies for childcare, especially when the wife is working full-time too, follows a High Court ruling from July 2023, which canceled the blanket exemption from enlistment for Haredi Israelis.
According to estimates, about 6,700 families will be affected by the decision to stop subsidizing daycare for children of Haredi men aged 18 to 26, just 3 weeks before the school year begins. This means some 10,000 children whose parents will be left without appropriate daycare, some of whom are listed by the Welfare Ministry as economically needy.
Deputy AG Dr. Gil Limon sent a letter to Labor Minister Yoav Ben Tzur, saying “The state is no longer authorized to encourage, through government funding according to daycare determinations, the Torah studies of individuals designated to serve in the security services. That is, the lack of authority no longer allows funding based on the fact that one of the family members is studying at a religious institution while being designated for security service.”
According to the letter, the failure of a Haredi father to enlist will not disqualify his children’s acceptance into daycare, only the state’s subsidies for his children.
Believe it or not, this may be the straw that broke the camel’s back and Prime Minister Netanyahu may no longer be able to dodge his responsibility to fire the most abusive AG in the history of Israel, who was gifted to him by the man who hates him with a vengeance, MK Gideon Saar (New Hope).
The Shas Knesset faction stated in response to the AG’s latest attack: “The AG’s decision to deny working Haredi mothers the subsidy for daycare today, three weeks before the start of the school year, just because the husband is studying Torah – constitutes cruel legal bullying and abuse of helpless children. This is a disgraceful Mark of Cain on the forehead of the legal system which is supposed to protect and support women who seek employment. The purpose of the subsidies is to encourage women to work.”
Shas noted that Haredi women have the highest rate for women’s employment in the OECD, and warned that the AG’s miserable decision would set them back.
“The status of yeshiva students is being debated these days in the Knesset Foreign and Security Committee, and efforts are being made to reach a legal settlement in cooperation with the security establishment,” Shas added. “The abuse of Haredi women as a means of applying pressure is absolute stupidity that will not remove a single student from the beit midrash and prevent any solution on the issue.”
National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir said on 103FM Sunday morning: “A year ago I told the Prime Minister let’s get rid of her, let’s send her home. She does whatever she wants.”
Mishpacha Magazine editor Aryeh Ehrlich said on Sunday, “An AG has pity for hapless Nukhba terrorists and is cruel to Jewish toddlers. Let it sink in for a moment. This is Sodom.”
