During a heated cabinet meeting yesterday, professional officials and legal advisers across government ministries presented their opposition to the new sanctions proposed against haredi families by the Attorney General’s legal advisory team, citing severe legal, technical, and operational difficulties.
The proposals submitted as part of a petition to the High Court include five central sanctions which, according to the Attorney General’s Office, are supposedly implementable without primary legislation by the Knesset.
However, a detailed review conducted by various government ministries revealed significant difficulties in implementing each of the proposals.
Regarding public transportation fare discounts, the Attorney General’s Office proposed amending regulations so that a passenger would not be eligible for discounted travel arrangements if they are required to report for military service and have not regularized their status with the military authorities.
The Ministry of Transport noted that this measure requires amending regulations (secondary legislation). It was also clarified that no response has yet been provided regarding the question of effectiveness.
Legal complexities were also raised concerning privacy issues, since eligibility for discounted public transport profiles is managed by private entities. In addition, the move requires the creation of an interface for data transfer between the IDF and the ministry.
On the “Housing at a Discount - Target Price" program, the legal advisory suggested adding an eligibility condition requiring anyone called for service to regularize their status with the IDF in order to qualify for the program. According to them, this would require amending Decision 4.7 of the Israel Land Council’s decisions.
However, the Ministry of Construction and Housing pointed to a serious legal problem: “There may be legal difficulty justifying the denial of eligibility only to yeshiva students who evade IDF service, while there is no prohibition on individuals convicted of serious offenses participating in the lotteries." It was also noted that the ministry would require continuous access to IDF data regarding the individual’s enlistment status, as the process takes time.
The Ministry of Labor addressed the issue of expanding conditional requirements in support criteria for daycare subsidies and subsidies for after-school programs.
The legal advisory proposed a broad amendment to the support mechanism, so that the eligibility requirement for subsidy applications-regularizing the status of a parent called for military service-would apply to all criteria, including working parents or parents studying for employment-oriented degrees, not only those studying in religious institutions.
The ministry strongly rejected the proposal. In its legal opinion it was written: “There is no way that measures related to the ministry’s employment programs meet the requirements of the court ruling, and adopting such measures would constitute an extremely unreasonable decision."
It was further noted that “it is not possible to determine effectiveness in increasing IDF enlistment," and that this could “lead to failure to achieve employment targets among Haredi men and harm the Israeli economy."
In addition, it was clarified that implementation depends on creating a data-sharing mechanism between the army and the ministry. The ministry emphasized: “Imposing enforcement measures in the context of employment programs and tools that encourage employment, and preventing eligible individuals from participating in these programs, carries far-reaching consequences."
Regarding municipal property tax (arnona) discounts, the legal advisory proposed amending regulations to limit the discretion of local authorities so that they would not be allowed to grant discounts to individuals called for military service who have not regularized their status with the military authorities.
However, the Ministry of Interior stated clearly: “Primary legislation is required," and the proposal cannot be implemented through regulatory amendments alone.
It was further noted that “such a condition is not relevant to the financial situation of the taxpayer and therefore contradicts the principle on which the discounts were established."
The common thread across all objections from professional officials and legal advisers in government ministries is concern over violations of privacy and fundamental rights, significant doubts about the ability of the measures to actually increase enlistment, and difficulties in creating data-sharing interfaces between the IDF and various ministries.