Welfare minister slams Finance Ministry over daycare supervision bill
Following recent revelations of child abuse in private kindergartens in Israel, Minister Haim Katz accuses Treasury of refusing to allot funds to support bill proposing state will fund supervision over daycares with children aged 0-3; Finance Ministry Director-General Shai Babad says Katz using 'cheap demagogy.'
The battle between the Welfare and Social Services Ministry and the Finance Ministry over the daycares supervision bill—proposing the state supervise daycares of infants up to the age of three—is escalating in light of recent revelations of child abuse taking place in daycares across the country.
A day after the Ministerial Committee for Legislation rejected the vote on the bill, Welfare and Social Services Minister Haim Katz told Ynet on Monday: "The Finance Ministry's officials don't care about weakened populations.
"I haven't discussed the matter with the finance minister on. The ones who run the Finance Ministry are clerks. They are boycotting me since I refuse to hear everything they say. This is a continuous failure of the Finance Ministry's clerks who find easy victims," Katz slammed.
The daycare supervision bill was initiated by Knesste Member Yifat Shasha-Biton (Kulanu), chairwoman of the Special Committee for the Rights of the Child, following the shocking revelation of kindergarten teachers abusing one-year-old infants in a daycare in Petah Tikva. The kindergarten teachers were recorded on video cameras shouting and hitting the infants without their knowledge.
Another incident, yet equally disturbing, took place in a kindergarten in Ramat Gan, in which a kindergarten teaching aid was recorded on security cameras assaulting helpless infants. Another incident took place in a kindergarten in Givatayim.
The horrifying series of helpless child-abuse cases culminated in the murder of the infant Jasmine Vinta by a kindergarten teaching aid in Petah Tikva. The aid laid on top of Jasmine suffocating her to death while playing with her phone.
The growing number of suspected daycare child-abuse cases reported across the country led to a severe dispute between the Welfare and Social Services Ministry and the Finance Ministry over budget funding for the implementation of daycare supervision bill.
Katz said during the interview, "In the 2019 budget book I demanded NIS three billion allocated to the daycares. After much struggle, they (the Finance Ministry) agreed to give me NIS 500 million for 2019.
"The year 2019 hasn't begun yet, and they (the Finance Ministry) have taken back NIS 200 million out of the NIS 500 million (promised)," Katz explained.
"They have already hurt girls at risk who deteriorated to prostitution and children with cognitive disabilities. 2019 hasn't begun yet and they have already taken 40 percent of this year's budget," the minister lashed out.
Katz also accused the Education Ministry of relieving itself of responsibility of providing an education framework for infants between ages 0-3. "The education Ministry has refused to assume responsibility.," he said.
"The Education Ministry had asked the Finance Ministry NIS two billion and the Finance Ministry refused," he elucidated.
"I want to make sure every child, every infant receives what he deserves. I want the parent to go to work with no worries knowing our daycares are subsidized for those who work. (The parents need to know) their children are safe, and nobody is abusing them, that's all I'm asking," he went on to say.
Katz stressed that the Finance Ministry has to assume responsibility. "A year ago, I submitted the (daycare supervision) bill and now they (Finance Ministry) are postponing the vote over it in the Ministerial Committee for Legislation by three weeks," he recounted.
"They want the (Knesset summer) session to be over, and then spin the matter against me. When I took over the daycare matter, I promised the parents to take care of it. I took care of the personals' salaries and the administrative bodies, I established daycares, (now) we have to deal with the issue of supervision," he stated.
"Daycares have to be supervised to prevent tragedies as those we've witnessed over the recent weeks," he concluded.
Shai Babad, the Finance Ministry's director general, responded, "The demagogic phrase 'The Finance Ministry is abandoning our children' has been going around since yesterday. We lament the Welfare and Social Services Ministry and minister have decided to act not as is customary in these cases."
To submit a grandiose proposal, ask for a billion shekels, and complain for not receiving it merely three month after closing the budget is demagogic," Babad accused.
"He (Katz) voted in favor the budget (allocated to the matter) three months ago. If it was so important to him, why did he vote in favor? Why did he sign it? The finance ministry increased the Welfare and Social Services Ministry's budget by 30-40 percent over the past four years. We've allocated more than NIS 12 billion to social issues," the director general explained.
Katz responded saying, "Babed speaks well, but are children are being abandoned."
Babed replied, "With all due respect to Minister Katz, the Welfare and Social Services Ministry should have attempted to deal with the issue (of daycare supervision) relying on its funds."
Israel has many issues to deal with, and cheap demagogy cannot be used as it is now. People dying of terminal illnesses who can be saved by medicines from the health basket are less important?" he wondered.
"If one desires to genuinely solve the problem, one has to sit down and review the matter with the Finance Ministry. As he (Katz) didn't solve the issue of the disabled and tossed it at us, the issue of (daycare) supervision is tossed at us as well," Babad accused.
"We'll do everything we can to find a solution and only address the matter of training the educational staff. Instead of trying to create funding sources, he attacks (The Finance Ministry) in the media," he concluded.
