By The Jerusalem Post (World News) | Created at 2024-09-25 18:00:15 | Updated at 2024-09-30 09:30:40
4 days ago
Labor Minister Yoav Ben-Tzur accused AG Gali Baharav-Miara of undermining democracy by blocking a government decision to extend daycare subsidies to haredi yeshiva students of military eligibility.
By ELIAV BREUER SEPTEMBER 25, 2024 20:43
‘THE HAREDI leadership argues that it is forbidden to draft yeshiva students whose Torah is their profession and that they defend the State of Israel through their studies.’
(photo credit: Marc Israel Sellem/Jerusalem Post)
Labor Minister Yoav Ben-Tzur accused Attorney General Gali Baharav-Miara on Wednesday of "undermining the democratic foundations of Israeli government" by ordering the labor ministry's legal advisor not to sign off on a government decision aimed at avoiding economic measures against military-age haredi yeshiva students, who are required by law to report for IDF service.
The government decision on Sunday, which was added to its agenda at the last minute, was to publish within a number of days the criteria for citizens to receive daycare subsidies for toddlers aged 0-3, that would apply only until the end of November.
The criteria, which are usually published prior to the beginning of the school year, includes families where one parent works and the other studies. These studies in the past included yeshiva studies. The AG's office wrote last month that following the expiration of the haredi exemption from IDF service, military-aged haredim men who were now legally required to enlist could no longer be eligible for the daycare subsidies. However, the AG still consented to a three-month "transition period" in which they could still receive the subsidies.
The government's Sunday decision was to make all criteria applicable for only three months. This would force the Labor Ministry to rewrite the criteria again ahead of December, with the hope that until then the ministry could find a legal loophole to enable the subsidies for military-age haredi yeshiva students to continue for the rest of the school year.
'Not viable'
Baharav-Miara wrote on Sunday that the government's decision was "not legally viable" since it disproportionately harmed all parents who are eligible for the subsidies but for reasons other than yeshiva study. According to the AG, no legal reason was given regarding why the subsidies for all other groups, such as single-parents and new immigrants, should apply for just three months and not for the entire school year. The government went ahead with the vote regardless.
Baharav-Miara wrote in a letter to Ben-Tzur on Tuesday that she had instructed the legal advisors in the Labor Ministry not to sign off on the criteria since they were not legally viable. She added that Ben-Tzur's refusal to sign off on criteria that would apply for the entire school year, and not just until the end of November, was harming eligible parents, and she encouraged the labor minister to publish them immediately in order to enable the subsidies to be transferred.
Ben-Tzur responded in the aforementioned letter on Wednesday, that he was bound by the government's decision, and that the attorney general was as well. According to Ben-Tzur, the AG thus did not have the authority to direct the legal advisors in the labor ministry not to sign off on the criteria according to the government decision. Ben-Tzur asked the AG to change her directive so that he could publish the criteria "immediately."
The exchange of letters was the newest development in an ongoing conflict between the labor minister and the attorney general's office over the haredi eligibility for subsidies. Ben-Tzur is a member of the haredi Shas party, and has attempted to find a loophole in order to enable haredi yeshiva students of military age to continue receiving the subsidies, even though this would serve as an incentive for them to continue acting against the law by avoiding IDF service.
