Israeli Task Force Could Enforce Gender Equality
The outcry over the disappearance of women from the public eye has reached the Knesset, where the Committee on the Status of Women will discuss the issue Tuesday morning and set up a task force to consider imposing sanctions against businesses that discriminate against women.
Maj. Gen. Orna Barbivai, who heads the Israel Defense Forces personnel directorate, will be speaking to the committee about the policy on women singing in military ceremonies, following several instances in which religious male soldiers refused to attend an event in which women were singing. Some have also refused to accept commands from female officers.
In another recent instance of tensions over women in the military, female soldiers were asked to move away from the main area at which a Simchat Torah post-holiday event was being held.
Other experts scheduled to appear before the committee include the CEO of the Egged bus company, who will discuss the sex-segregated bus lines in which women are expected to sit in the back.
This is a moment of great uncertainty. Here’s what you can do about it.
We hope you appreciated this article. Before you go, we’d like to ask you to please support the Forward’s independent Jewish news this Passover. All donations are being matched by the Forward Board - up to $100,000.
This is a moment of great uncertainty for the news media, for the Jewish people, and for our sacred democracy. It is a time of confusion and declining trust in public institutions. An era in which we need humans to report facts, conduct investigations that hold power to account, tell stories that matter and share honest discourse on all that divides us.
With no paywall or subscriptions, the Forward is entirely supported by readers like you. Every dollar you give this Passover is invested in the future of the Forward — and telling the American Jewish story fully and fairly.
The Forward doesn’t rely on funding from institutions like governments or your local Jewish federation. There are thousands of readers like you who give us $18 or $36 or $100 each month or year.
Support our mission to tell the Jewish story fully and fairly.
