Skip To Content
JEWISH. INDEPENDENT. NONPROFIT.
Israel News

Miniskirt Protesters Blocked From Israel’s Knesset as ‘Modesty’ Spat Rages

Forty female Israeli parliamentary aides and advisers showed up to work in miniskirts and black leggings on December 14 in protest of new Knesset modesty rules.

Their protest was sparked by two incidents in recent weeks when women were either turned away or delayed at the Knesset by guards because of what they were wearing.

New Knesset rules took effect last month barring people “in inappropriate clothing, such as … short skirts or dresses, clogs, etc.”

At the Wednesday protest, 10 women were not allowed to enter the Knesset. The rest were, but stayed outside as part of the demonstration, Haaretz reported. Zionist Union lawmaker Manuel Trajtenberg stripped down to an undershirt in solidarity with the women.

Before the mini skirt protest, the union representing the Knesset aides met with Knesset director Albert Saharovitch but the two sides failed to come to an agreement with Saharovitch maintaining the need for the new dress code to “preserve the honor of the Knesset.”

Contact Naomi Zeveloff at [email protected] or on Twitter @naomizeveloff

A message from our CEO & publisher Rachel Fishman Feddersen

I hope you appreciated this article. Before you go, I’d like to ask you to please support the Forward’s award-winning, nonprofit journalism during this critical time.

At a time when other newsrooms are closing or cutting back, the Forward has removed its paywall and invested additional resources to report on the ground from Israel and around the U.S. on the impact of the war, rising antisemitism and polarized discourse..

Readers like you make it all possible. Support our work by becoming a Forward Member and connect with our journalism and your community.

—  Rachel Fishman Feddersen, Publisher and CEO

Join our mission to tell the Jewish story fully and fairly.

Republish This Story

Please read before republishing

We’re happy to make this story available to republish for free, unless it originated with JTA, Haaretz or another publication (as indicated on the article) and as long as you follow our guidelines. You must credit the Forward, retain our pixel and preserve our canonical link in Google search.  See our full guidelines for more information, and this guide for detail about canonical URLs.

To republish, copy the HTML by clicking on the yellow button to the right; it includes our tracking pixel, all paragraph styles and hyperlinks, the author byline and credit to the Forward. It does not include images; to avoid copyright violations, you must add them manually, following our guidelines. Please email us at [email protected], subject line “republish,” with any questions or to let us know what stories you’re picking up.

We don't support Internet Explorer

Please use Chrome, Safari, Firefox, or Edge to view this site.