Haredi day care bill loses majority after three RZP MKs withdraw support

Israel's governing coalition may not have a majority for a preliminary vote for a controversial bill aimed at relieving haredi military-age men from a significant financial sanction if they continue evading IDF service.

The sanction in question is the removal of subsidies for daycare payments, and the bill, authored by United Torah Judaism MK Yisrael Eichler, determines that haredi families in which the mother works will continue receiving the subsidy, even if the father is, in effect, evading IDF service.

The coalition has 68 members. United Right chairman MK Gideon Sa'ar announced on Sunday that his four MKs would oppose the bill, and Likud MK Dan Illouz also said he would vote no.

Knesset Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee chairman MK Yuli Edelstein (Likud) announced on Monday that he would also "not give a hand" to a bill that would incentivize draft evasion. Defense Minister Yoav Gallant is also not expected to support the bill. Edelstein did not say explicitly whether or not he would vote against the bill, and coalition leaders were reportedly pressuring him and Gallant to abstain from the vote rather than vote against it.

Other oppositions to the bill

Other coalition MKs voiced opposition to the bill, including Religious Zionist Party MKs Ohad Tal and Moshe Solomon, as well as a minister from the party, Ofir Sofer. Tal and Solomon clarified in a statement on Tuesday that they had not yet decided what their vote would be and that they would vote according to a party decision, which had not been made yet.

Even if the bill passes its preliminary vote on Wednesday, it will still need to go through the legislative process and may not become law.

The bill's supporters, led by Eichler, have argued that rather than pushing yeshiva students into the army, the sanction will force working haredi mothers to leave their jobs in order to care for children they can no longer afford to send to daycare. However, the bill proposal was deemed unconstitutional on Sunday by the attorney general's office due to its de-facto incentivizing draft evasion.

A coalition leader threatened on Monday that the Likud's members must adhere to "coalition discipline" and vote in favor of the bill, and those that do not will face sanctions. Coalition whip MK Ofir Katz can, for example, attempt to remove party renegades from the Knesset committees to which they belong.

Members of the haredi United Torah Judaism party reportedly threatened on Monday that they would oppose other coalition bills if the daycare bill did not pass or was not brought for a vote on Wednesday.

Jerusalem Post Staff contributed to this report.