Finance Minister Betzalel Smotrich sent a scathing letter to the office of Attorney-General Gali Baharav-Miara, slamming the decision to end daycare subsidies for families of avreichim eligible for the draft and saying that he has no intention of complying with the ruling.

“It’s amazing to me that you conduct discussions, exchange correspondence, and make decisions with far-reaching implications on budgetary and economic issues between yourselves, without even thinking that it would be appropriate to at least ask the opinion of the Finance Minister – a state within a state,” Smotrich wrote.

“The starting point that led to this decision is that daycare subsidies are provided due to the father’s Torah study and as support for this study, based on the Supreme Court’s ruling regarding yeshiva budgets. This premise is fundamentally wrong, an illusory house of cards that has no basis in reality. Daycare subsidies have nothing to do with the father’s Torah study but is intended to encourage mothers to work while helping finance daycare for her children.”

“Subsidies were provided with the stated aim of promoting the integration of Chareidi women in the employment market. The government decided that subsidies would also be given to mothers whose husbands are studying in yeshiva. This is a practical decision based on a simple fact of life, that in Chareidi families in which the father studies Torah, the mother stays at home to watch the children even at the cost of poverty and a low standard of living.”

“The subsidies have been a resounding success. In the last two decades, there has been a dramatic increase in the rate of Chareidi women’s employment. You would have to be blind not to see the positive effects of Chareidi women’s employment on the economy and on Chareidi society.”

Smotrich demanded that the Attorney-General “immediately rescind your fundamentally wrong opinion, allow me to continue with my economic policy that supports growth and the integration of Chareidi women in the employment market, and refrain from sabotaging it and the economy in an illegal manner. By virtue of my authority as the Minister of Finance, I order the continuation of daycare subsidies in accordance with the criteria provided by the Labor Ministry.”

“If you believe that this decision is illegal, the door is open to you to petition against it to the Supreme Court, where I will demand independent representation.”

“It is hard not to sense that when it comes to the Chareidi public and its budgets, you are repeatedly driven by a hostile agenda that blinds you, and seek any possible way to harm them. I wish that you would invest a fraction of the energy you invest in damaging the budgets of the Chareid public in aiding me in my efforts to prevent the leakage of government budgets to criminal organizations, in my fight against the black market, etc.”

Smotrich later clarified that he supports the enlistment of Chareidim to the IDF but as the Finance Minister, “I’m not prepared to punish myself and severely damage the economy just to punish them for not doing it yet.”

“The scandalous decision by a group of irresponsible legal officials to cancel daycare subsidies for Chareidi women will severely damage the economy and will not recruit a single Chareidi to the IDF. It will set back an important and successful trend of two decades in the integration of Chareidi women in the employment market, will harm productivity, the GDP and the state’s tax revenues. And the decision was made with a complete lack of authority by a group of legal officials who did not think it was necessary to even consult with the Minister of Finance on such an economically fateful issue.”

(YWN Israel Desk – Jerusalem)