High Court suggests compromise extending haredi daycare for three months

The compromise would enable subsidies to continue for three months after the start of the school year, expecting them to expire at the end of November.

By ELIAV BREUER NOVEMBER 18, 2024 13:36 Updated: NOVEMBER 18, 2024 13:43

DESPITE THE IDF’s calculation that it needs 7,000 new troops, Monday’s vote to revive an older haredi draft bill was approved by the majority of the Knesset members. (photo credit: Chaim Goldberg/Flash90)

The High Court of Justice suggested on Monday a compromise on the issue of daycare subsidies for haredi yeshiva students, according to which Labor Minister Yoav Ben-Tzur (Shas) must publish the criteria for daycare subsidies within a month, while haredi yeshiva students who are required to enlist in the IDF will receive the subsidies for three additional months.

End of haredi exemption 

Following a High Court ruling at the end of June that officially ended the haredi exemption from IDF service, the attorney general's office instructed that yeshiva students who were no longer exempt from service couldn't receive government subsidies due to their yeshiva studies.

One of these was a subsidy for daycare for children under the age of three for families in which the mother works and the father is a yeshiva student.

However, the attorney-general consented to a request by Ben-Tzur to enable the subsidies to continue for three months after the start of the school year to enable the labor ministry to organize itself for the policy change. The subsidy is expected to expire at the end of November.

However, Ben-Tzur refused to accept the three-month limit and refrained from issuing any criteria whatsoever. This blocked all eligible Israelis, including single parents and others, from receiving the subsidy in the meanwhile.

Haredi demonstrators hold signs while protesting against IDF enlistment, August 5, 2024. (credit: Via Maariv)

The suggestion came at the end of a hearing in the High Court filed by several organizations against the government and the attorney-general.

These included, on one hand, a petition demanding that haredi yeshiva students continue receiving daycare subsidies as before, even if they ignore the legal demand to enlist, and on the other, petitions demanding the daycare subsidies for the yeshiva students cease immediately.

The issue of the haredi daycare subsidy is at the heart of the public controversy over the haredi IDF draft and the fact that despite the June ruling, the number of haredi draftees remains very low.

The ending of the daycare subsidies is a significant financial sanction, and Ben-Tzur has attempted to circumvent it in order to de-facto enable the haredi exemption to continue.