The Supreme Court ordered Finance Minister Yoram Aridor yesterday to show cause why Israeli Arab families should not receive the same child care allowances as the rest of the population. He has 45 days to reply. The court acted on a petition filed by two Arab Knesset members, Mohammad Wattad and Hammad Halaili, both of the Labor Alignment.
They were appealing against a recent decision by the Knesset Finance Committee to increase the allowances to families with three or more children. The decision was discriminatory, the complaints said, because the increase is to apply only for children of yeshiva students or army veterans. There are no Arabs in either category. Wattad is the father of seven children and Halaili of 10 children.
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