Israeli Attorney General Gali Baharav-Miara sent a letter on Sunday to Labor Minister Yoav Ben Tzur stating her opinion that funding for day care centers for children of ultra-Orthodox Torah scholars who dodge IDF service should be stopped.
The attorney general said that since the June 25 landmark ruling by the High Court of Justice that haredi, or ultra-Orthodox, yeshivah students must perform army service, there is no legal basis to fund day care for their children.
“In the absence of a legal basis for postponing the [IDF] service, the legal basis for encouraging and supporting the state in the activities of those who avoid conscription has been dropped,” the letter states.
It added that the cessation of day care funding will start from the next academic year.
The ultra-Orthodox Shas Party, to which Ben Tzur belongs, responded in a statement: “The decision of the attorney general to deny working ultra-Orthodox mothers the subsidy for day care today, three weeks before the start of the school year, just because the husband is studying Torah—this is cruel legal bullying and abuse of helpless children.
“This is a disgraceful mark of Cain on the face of the legal system, which is supposed to be the protector and helper for women who have decided to enter the workforce and contribute to the Israeli economy,” it said.
In the haredi community, wives often work to support their husbands, who study full-time. The Labor Ministry estimates that the decision will affect some 6,700 ultra-Orthodox families and about 10,000 children.
United Torah Judaism, another ultra-Orthodox party, attacked the decision along the same lines, with Construction and Housing Minister Yitzhak Goldknopf, the party’s leader, calling the decision “scandalous and discriminatory.
“This is a direct attack on ultra-Orthodox women who go to work for a living, and seek to maintain a Torah lifestyle,” he said. “This is another attempt to harm the ultra-Orthodox public in various and cruel ways— an attempt doomed to failure,” he said.
United Torah Judaism said it would call for an urgent discussion in the Cabinet and the Knesset on the issue.
