Jerusalem Affairs Minister Meir Porush (United Torah Judaism) on Tuesday night responded to a new law revoking National Insurance Institute (Bituach Leumi) stipends for terrorists by calling out the judiciary's double standard.
Speaking at the Knesset plenum, Porush said, "I don't understand what country I'm in, and what year I'm in. As far as I know, I am in the year 2024, in the same country I was in two years ago. In today's country, there is no problem deciding that the family of a person who didn't become a soldier should not be eligible for daycare [discounts]."
Such a person, he stressed, "is not a terrorist - his whole sin is that maybe he hasn't yet enlisted, or that he, as per the rabbis' instructions, is not going to enlist until there is an arrangement ensuring that people will not be able to harm yeshiva students."
"But with the wave of a hand, the Attorney General decides that they will not receive money - not his family, and not the yeshiva where he studies, to harm his children. But in order to take money from a terrorist, we need a law? And if there was already a law, then the Supreme Court overturns it, and you have to bring another law.
"Can someone explain to me why someone sitting and learning in yeshiva isn't deserving of support, but a terrorist received [support] up until a moment ago? Why a mother whose child is in daycare should not receive a subsidy, but until now, terrorists did? What is the logic? Other than hatred of haredim, there is no explanation."