Knesset Set for First Vote on Day Care Subsidy Bill, with Ultra-Orthodox Pushing Fast Track

The Knesset plenum is expected to vote Monday afternoon on the first reading of the daycare bill, after it already passed a preliminary reading last week. Ultra-Orthodox factions are pressing for the bill to be sent immediately to the Finance Committee and for the entire legislative process to be completed within two weeks.

Their stated goal is to restore daycare subsidies for young yeshiva students who have received draft notices. Political and legal assessments, however, say the High Court of Justice is unlikely to allow the subsidies even if the bill passes, unless a broader law is enacted to regulate the status of Torah students.

The bill was introduced by Degel HaTorah chairman MK Moshe Gafni together with a group of lawmakers. It would state that, when determining priority for admission to a daycare center and state support for tuition, a parent’s employment status would not be considered if that parent studies in a higher-education institution or in a yeshiva.

Last week the bill passed its preliminary reading by 56 votes to 43 after heated debate, with the opposition denouncing it as unjustified favoritism. The latest political dispute also centers on Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich, who said the changes to the daycare bill, including a preference clause for reserve soldiers, were made at his request. Gafni responded sharply, calling Smotrich’s attempt to claim credit “ridiculous and detached from reality,” while Shas chairman Aryeh Deri also attacked him. Coalition leaders rejected Smotrich’s claims, saying the changes were made long before his supposed intervention.

The daycare vote comes one week after another controversial bill, the Basic Law on Torah Study, also passed a preliminary reading by 56 to 43 amid turmoil in the plenum.