Posted on 01/12/22
| News Source: i24
The bill would have ended subsidies for some 18,000 families with fathers that learn full-time in yeshiva.
Israel's High Court of Justice ruled on Wednesday that daycare for families of yeshiva students will remain subsidized until the end of the school year - drawing the ire of Finance Minister Avigdor Lieberman, who proposed the bill to cut the subsidies.
Lieberman introduced the plan in July, saying that the subsidies would only be granted if both the child's parents work at least 24 hours a week or are involved in academic or vocational studies, not Torah studies.
This would have ended subsidies for some 18,000 families with fathers that learn full-time in a yeshiva.
The implementation of the plan was delayed until after the current school year began. However, courts ruled that the decision to not allow a period of a year before cutting subsidies “does not strike an appropriate and informed balance between the relevant interests under the circumstances, and is therefore unreasonable," The Times of Israel reported.
Lieberman responded on Twitter that the ruling "harms the country's citizens who serve in the military, work, and pay taxes."
He continued, "We will continue to work hard to integrate all citizens into the labor market."
Ultra-Orthodox factions, however, welcomed the decision by the court.
Knesset member Yaakov Litzman of the United Torah Judaism party stated that the judges “understood that Liberman’s wickedness against the yeshiva students’ children is inappropriate and should be rejected," according to The Times of Israel.