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.
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.
Now more than ever, American Jews need independent news they can trust, with reporting driven by truth, not ideology. We serve you, not any ideological agenda.
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 the protests on college campuses.
Readers like you make it all possible. Support our work by becoming a Forward Member and connect with our journalism and your community.
Make a gift of any size and become a Forward member today. You’ll support our mission to tell the American Jewish story fully and fairly.
— Rachel Fishman Feddersen, Publisher and CEO
Join our mission to tell the Jewish story fully and fairly.
