Israeli attorney general suspends daycare funding for ultra-Orthodox yeshiva student draft dodgers

Ultra-Orthodox military draft is a controversial issue that could upset coalition agreements

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The office of Israeli Attorney General Gali Baharav-Miara sent a letter to Labor Minister Yoav Ben-Tzur on Sunday morning instructing the ministry to stop funding daycare centers for young ultra-Orthodox (Haredim) families whose members fail to enlist in the Israeli military.

The letter outlines the attorney general's legal stance, stating that daycare funding will be halted for families with young Haredi individuals who are eligible for military service but fail to report for duty.

"The necessary conclusion is that there is no longer any justification to fund the daycare as an incentive for Torah studies for those who are designated for military service but have not shown up to be drafted,” the letter stated. Additionally, the funding cut will begin in the upcoming school year and will only impact daycare funding, not registration.

According to estimates, about 6,700 Haredi families whose fathers study in yeshivas could lose funding for daycare and could necessitate the men entering the workforce.

The move by Baharav-Miara comes about two weeks after Israel Defense Forces began issuing draft orders to the first of an estimated 3,000 ultra-Orthodox men.

Hebrew news sites reported that only around 48 out of 900 men who received the draft orders actually showed up at IDF recruitment centers.

The Shas ultra-Orthodox political party issued a statement condemning the AG's position, calling it “cruel legal bullying.”

“The attorney general's decision to deny working ultra-Orthodox mothers the subsidy of daycare centers, three weeks before the start of the school year, just because the husband is studying Torah - is cruel legal bullying and abuse of helpless children,” Shas said in a statement.

“This is a shameful mark of Cain on the forehead of a legal system that is supposed to be the protector and relief of women who have decided to enter the workforce and contribute to the Israeli economy.”

Labor Minister Ben-Tzur is a member of Shas.

United Torah Judaism party chairman, Housing Minister Yitzhak Goldknopf, also responded to the attorney general's decision to “discriminate against Haredi children.”

“This is an outrageous and discriminatory decision,” Goldknopf stated. “This is a direct blow to haredi women who go out to work for a living and seek to maintain a Torah lifestyle.”

Goldknopf also said Baharav-Miara “would not have issued an identical decision against the Arab population that does not serve or against the children of foreign workers and infiltrators who enjoy services and allowances.”

Goldknopf criticized the move as “another attempt to harm the ultra-Orthodox public in various and cruel ways” and announced that his party will call for an urgent discussion in both the government and the Knesset on the matter.

Many ultra-Orthodox women work full-time jobs to support their families while their husbands study Talmud and rabbinic writings in religious institutions schools called yeshivas.

Exemption from the IDF draft was one of the platforms of the current coalition government. The issue has the potential to disrupt government coalition relations, as some members of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s Likud party support the draft of Haredi men.

Ultra-Orthodox parties have historically been opposed to political Zionism and do not believe their members should participate in military service, as that represents a potential threat to their way of life, due to the risk of secularization.

Many young Haredi men have held signs at anti-draft protests declaring: “We will die but not enlist.”