Israeli gov’t in turmoil amid internal revolt against bill promising daycare for Haredi draft evaders

The Israeli government is in turmoil once again, as numerous coalition lawmakers have spoken out against a bill proposing to afford daycare subsidies for children of ultra-Orthodox men – even those who dodge the military draft.

The coalition has now lost its prospective majority, after three Members of Knesset (MKs) from the Religious Zionism Party, Ofir Sofer, Ohad Tal and Moshe Solomon, announced they would not vote for the so-called Daycare Law on Tuesday.

On Monday, senior Likud party MK Yuli Edelstein, who chairs the influential Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee, announced he would not vote for the bill. In addition, Edelstein’s party colleague Dan Illouz, and Gideon Sa’ar’s New Hope party said they would also vote against it.

“I will not lend my hand to the Daycare Law, nor to any law that attempts to circumvent our ceaseless efforts to expand the conscription base in the State of Israel,” Edelstein said.

Sa’ar, whose party has four votes, cautioned the law would “convey a message of encouraging evasion from service in the IDF and will assist in doing so.”

“The time of the coalition is running out,” officials in the United Torah Judaism (UTJ) party told Maariv in response to the reports of the internal coalition rebellion.

Despite the setback, Channel 12 News reported that the vote planned for Wednesday is expected to go forward, with opponents subjected to heavy pressure to vote for the bill, or at least to abstain from the vote.

According to earlier media reports, coalition officials had indicated the vote could be postponed if it cannot secure enough support, leading UTJ to threaten to boycott upcoming votes on other coalition-backed legislation, effectively blocking the government.

The Daycare Law was advanced by the Haredi UTJ and Shas parties after they backed down from their threat to block the financial budget for the coming year unless a new law would grant ultra-Orthodox men new draft exemptions.

The bill aims to enshrine state-financed daycare subsidies for the children of ultra-Orthodox men who are, in theory, obligated to report for the IDF draft but have not done so.

In June, Israel’s High Court ruled unanimously that the State of Israel can no longer legally exempt ultra-Orthodox men studying in religious schools from being drafted for army service, and, therefore, must also halt all funding for the students. The proposed Daycare Law aims to circumvent this ruling.

The announcement of the bill led to an outcry among opposition parties, who said the law was a betrayal of the part of the society that is serving in the IDF.

Yair Lapid’s Yesh Atid party denounced the bill as “treachery” that would stick “a knife in the back of the middle class, IDF reservists, wounded IDF servicemen and the memory of the fallen.”

MK Matan Kahana of National Unity said the law “spat in the face of IDF reservists.”