Ministerial Committee on Legislative Affairs to discuss controversial proposal aimed at finding way around High Court ruling against income support for young haredim engaged in Torah studies.
New bill: Yeshiva students to get millions
Ministerial Committee on Legislative Affairs to discuss controversial proposal aimed at finding way around High Court ruling against income support for young haredim engaged in Torah studies
Aviad Glickman • Ynet
The Ministerial Committee on Legislative Affairs on Monday is expected to discuss a bill which will see yeshiva students get hundreds of millions of dollars from the State. The proposal, which is aimed at bypassing a High Court ruling, was initiated by Knesset Member Moshe Gafni (United Torah Judaism).
The new bill proposes "establishing the right of yeshiva students whose Torah is their profession to receive a grant." It was signed by MKs from the United Torah Judaism, Shas and National Union factions, who explained that their goal was to reach a unique settlement which would grant funds to yeshiva students with at least three children.
The High Court of Justice ruled in 2000 that granting yeshiva students assurance of income harms equality, as it does not apply to people who do not study in non-religious institutions. Ten years later, the Supreme Court ruled that the budgetary clause violates the duty to equally distribute the State's support, and therefore cannot be included in the budget laws as of 2011.
MK Gafni decided to submit the bill in a bid to bypass the court decision. Following the Supreme Court ruling, the Knesset's Finance Committee examined the subsidization of tuition in higher education institutions and the aid funds and scholarships available to students.
The figures reveal that the total budget allotted by the State in the 2010 budget to support students stands at NIS 450 million (about $125 million), while the budgetary clause referring to assurance of income for yeshiva students totals NIS 121 million (about $33 million).
The bill's initiators wrote that "the State encourages Torah studies and should therefore allow a modest living grant for yeshiva students who have chosen to follow this path."
Knesset Member Nachman Shai (Kadima) said he planned to submit a similar bill in which he would add the word "students" to any mention of haredim. "Any other law would be discriminative and offensive," he stated.
Roni Sofer contributed to this report.
Here is the Jerusalem Post's report:
C'tee to review bill reinstating yeshiva student stipends
"Learning in kollels is the essence of the Jewish people;" UTJ, Shas, National Union sponsor law to fund those who study Torah full-time.
By LAHAV HARKOV • Jerusalem Post
The Ministerial Committee on Legislation is set to discuss a bill initiated by MK Moshe Gafni, that will reinstate stipends for those who study Torah full-time.
"The purpose of this law is to anchor the right of kollel students to recieve stipends and establish unified rules for granting them," the bill, which the committee will discuss on Sunday, reads. "The State encourages Torah studies, and therefore should allow a modest grant for yeshiva students."
The new law is sponsored by UTJ, Shas and the National Union, and proposes giving scholarships to kollel students with at least three children and no other source of income.
Other conditions for receiving a stipend are that the student not own land or a car, and that his wife not work, either.
The new law circumvents the Supreme Court's mid-June ruling that put an end to income guarantees to yeshiva students.
At the time, the Supreme Court said that such guarantees are discriminatory, because they were not given to university students, as well. The court ruled that they can not be included in the 2011 budget.
The proposed bill points out that the state's budget allows for NIS 450 million in aid for university students, and only NIS 121 million for kollel students.
In the explanatory section of the bill, the MKs wrote: "The voice of Torah was not silenced even in the darkest periods in Jewish history, and much of the public sees Torah learning in kollels as promoting the essence of the Jewish people's existence and the guarantee of their eternal continuity."
And here is the Ha'aretz report:
Handouts, not work, for Haredim
Knesset Finance Committee chair introduced a bill this week to provide income allowances to full-time yeshiva students.
By Zvi Zrahiya • Ha’aretz
The chairman of the Knesset Finance Committee, MK Moshe Gafni (United Torah Judaism ), introduced a bill this week to provide income allowances to full-time yeshiva students. The High Court of Justice banned similar payments in June, saying they discriminated between students in academic institutions and those in yeshivas - and ordered them stopped as of 2011.
United Torah Judaism and Shas, both members of the governing coalition, have made their support of the 2011-2012 budget conditional on the acceptance of the estimated NIS 150 million in allowances for yeshiva students.
Prime Minster Benjamin Netanyahu does not have a Knesset majority for the budget without the two parties, and if the budget is not passed by March 31, new elections will have to be called within 90 days. Netanyahu and Finance Minister Yuval Steinitz are keen to pass the budget and Economic Arrangements Bill by the end of December.
The two ultra-Orthodox parties say Netanyahu has already promised coalition support for the change, and the proposed legislation will be fast-tracked and not have the normal 45-day waiting period before Knesset consideration. Instead, it will be presented on Sunday to the Ministerial Committee on Legislation, which will decide whether to give government backing to Gafni's bill.
The Knesset House Committee will be asked next week to approve an exemption from the waiting period; if the committee approves, the bill will be brought to the Knesset on Wednesday for a preliminary reading. The budget and Economic Arrangements Bill will be brought for a first reading and vote on Tuesday, so Shas and UTJ are putting pressure on Netanyahu and Steinitz to approve Gafni's bill at the same time.
And the timing of Gafni's bill is certainly anything but a coincidence. That's also the reason the Ministerial Committee on Legislation will vote on Sunday - two days before the budget law is brought for its first Knesset vote.
Gafni's committee is responsible for preparing the budget for its second and third readings in the Knesset.
The cost is NIS 135 million a year for full-time yeshiva students.
Photo by: Nir Kafri
NIS 1,000 a month
The total cost of the proposed stipends is between NIS 120 million and NIS 135 million, based on a monthly allowance of about NIS 1,000 for more than 11,000 yeshiva students who meet various criteria for the allowances. But out of a total budget of NIS 348.2 billion, that's a small price for Netanyahu to pay to keep his government in power.
Six other MKs also sponsored the bill, three from UTJ, three from Shas and Uri Ariel (National Union ).
[Hat Tip: Seymour.]