Labor Minister Yoav Ben Tzur on Wednesday announced to the Knesset that he would sign within a month the eligibility criteria that will allow daycare to be subsidized.
The announcement follows months during which those eligible for subsidies could not receive them due to the fact that Ben Tzur refused to sign the criteria if yeshiva students' families were not allowed to receive subsidies.
Now, following a compromise proposed by the Supreme Court, under which yeshiva students would be able to receive daycare subsidies for an additional three months, until February, Ben Tzur has announced his decision to sign the criteria.
Earlier this year, Attorney General Gali Baharav-Miara sent a letter to Ben-Tzur, instructing him to stop funding daycare centers for families with members eligible to be drafted.
"In the current legal situation, the state is no longer authorized to encourage, through government funding according to daycare eligibility tests, religious studies of conscripts. In other words, the lack of authority no longer allows for funding based on the fact that a family member is studying in a religious institution while being designated for military service," she wrote.
The move sparked backlash, including from the Authority for the Integration of the Haredi Sector in the Prime Minister's Office.
In a letter, Ro'ee Assaf, the head of the Authority, warned that preventing the subsidies from reaching families who need them will cause women to leave the workforce, as well as widescale negative effects."
The Authority also expects that without daycare subsidies, many women will be forced to reduce the number of hours that they work, or leave their jobs altogether. The cuts may also lead to an increase in the number of unsupervised and unsafe daycare centers, as parents seek cheaper alternatives to the subsidized, supervised daycares.
It also proposed separating the husband's standing as a yeshiva student and the rights of working women, for the purpose of seeking a solution which will balance the various rights.