Gender segregation and gender discrimination in Israel has finally come to its legal end.
This large sign dictating the clothing women can and cannot wear is posted in Jerusalem's Mea Shearim neighborhood. It is now illegal and must be immediately removed.
In a crushing blow to haredim, Ha’aretz is reporting that earlier today Israel’s Attorney General Yehuda Weinstein issued a sweeping ruling and a report that order government ministers to immediately stop discrimination against women in all areas under their authority.
Here are some of the specifics:
• No state-sponsored event may segregate men and women.
• No state-funded buses can gender segregate, directly or indirectly. The Transportation Ministry must both issue clear instructions to the bus companies that any segregation or discrimination is illegal and increase supervision of the companies to make sure they are in compliance with this order.
“Boarding buses will be permitted only through the front door, and payment must be made directly to the driver,” Weinstein wrote – effectively ending the so-called mehadrin haredi buses.
• Segregation in cemeteries and the haredi instituted ban against women delivering eulogies at funerals are illegal and must end immediately.
• HMOs can no longer gender segregate (by having separate hours for men and women, etc.) to appease haredim or for any other reason.
• Local authorities (city, town and village governments) must prevent the posting of signs and posters that encourage or demand that women use segregated sidewalks or dress according to haredi or Orthodox standards of modesty.
• Haredi radio stations can no longer bar women from appearing on air.
• The law prohibiting discrimination against women also applies to private companies that operate under a license from or franchise from the state or a public authority – for example, a city or regional council.
“The public authority must use all legal means available to it as a supervisory and regulatory agency to put an end to every form of segregation and differentiation which, as stated, constitute discrimination,” Weinstein’s report mandates.
• Every public authority is mandated to quickly, efficiently and firmly to stop all gender segregation.
Additionally, Weinstein urged the Knesset to pass legislation "making it a criminal offense to harass anyone by treating them in a contemptuous or humiliating manner on the basis of race, religion, religious affiliation, nationality, country of origin, sex, sexual preference, world view, party affiliation, or marital or parental status for the purpose of denying them access to or use of public services or reducing the level of their service.”