The Attorney General, Gali Baharav-Miara sent an opinion to the Minister of Justice, Yariv Levin, against the bill which the government is promoting and which is to be voted on today (Sunday) in the Ministerial Committee for Legislation.
"The law will encourage the unlawful evasion of military service, will increase the harm to those who serve, and is illegitimate," she wrote.
She noted that "The purpose of the bill before us is to circumvent the consequences arising from the expiration of the Military Service Law and the absence of an alternative legislative arrangement, for those studying Torah when they are obligated to military service. This purpose deepens the inequality in the burden. Therefore, it does not justify the inequality inherent in the proposed arrangement."
"The matters are all the more true in respect of the immediate application of the change in the subsidy conditions in respect of the current school year without changing the conditions of admission, in a manner which leads in effect to the benefit being given mainly to families in which the mother works and the father studies Torah and does not report for duty. From a legal perspective, the arrangement cannot be advanced. It is not based on a relevant professional factual basis and does not pass the constitutional tests."
The bill is sponsored by MK Yisrael Eichler (UTJ) and seeks to circumvent the decision of the Attorney General to deny subsidies for daycare to families of yeshiva students who do not enlist in the army.
Under the proposal, subsidies for day care would be given only on the basis of the mother's employment status, and thus even if the father is not working and studying Torah, the family would receive the benefit.
"The cancellation of the discount on day-care centers and nurseries for working women, in relation to their spouses who have chosen to devote their lives to the study of Torah, contravenes the fundamental principles of human dignity and freedom of occupation. It is unthinkable that in the Jewish state mothers should be prevented from going out to work and supporting their children," the bill's explanatory notes read.