Published: 22 October 2019
Last updated: 4 March 2024
THE STATE IS FUNDING cultural events for the ultra-Orthodox community where gender segregation is enforced by seating women in separate spaces where they can only watch the performance on screens.
Until now, separation of men and women was usually carried out by using a partition to divide a space into two sections. But gender separation in the city of Beit Shemesh is more stringent as it seemingly strives to remove women entirely from the shared public space.
A few weeks ago, Israel’s attorney general, Avichai Mandelblit, issued a controversial written legal opinion acquiescing to segregation between men and women at publicly funded events under certain conditions.
However, the statement did not take into account this form of exclusion — apparently because that option did not even occur to the jurists who took part in the discussions.
FULL STORY Women made to watch public events on screens as Israeli city doubles down on gender segregation (Haaretz)
Photo: Women watching men at a cultural event in Beit Shemesh (Avishag Shaar-Yashuv)
