Emet LeYaakov Challenges Daycare Subsidy Rules Tied to Parents’ Military Status

Emet LeYaakov BeYisrael is challenging daycare subsidy criteria that link eligibility to both parents’ military status. The newly disclosed High Court petition seeks changes to the Labor Ministry’s rules for the 5787 school year, arguing that restrictions aimed at parents also harm young children and their families’ ability to work. The public-benefit company, represented by attorney Yitzhak Bam, names the labor minister, the ministry’s director-general and the attorney general as respondents. Its pleading challenges sections 3 and 5.5–5.6 and Annex 9 of the criteria. It argues that conditioning childcare support on military status exceeds administrative authority and infringes equality and dignity. “The state may enforce the father’s duty to enlist,” the petitioner says, while arguing against using a toddler’s subsidy as the means of enforcement. The petition says the criteria were published on August 24, after the Haredi daycare year began on August 14, and were applied from the start of the year. It argues that families who had completed registration by March 14 relied on the previous rules and should receive protection from a subsequent change in eligibility. The requested remedies include a transition period, continued assistance for already registered families, and partial subsidies or gradual reductions with warning periods instead of complete exclusion. The challenge concerns the conditions for childcare support rather than a request to cancel military-service duties. The High Court has asked the state to respond within 30 days; that procedural step does not decide the petition’s merits.