Slippery Slope

Not a single woman participated in a meeting of the Police Department’s senior command regarding exclusion of women.  Approximately a quarter of the police force is made up of women, yet not a single woman holds a senior post in the department.

(Hebrew)

A Haredi resident of Beit Shemesh was arrested on suspicion that he spat at a 42 years old woman on the street. The suspect was released on bail.

Haredi men in Beit Shemesh spat on a 7 year old girl because, according to them, she passed them wearing “immodest clothing”.  The men were filmed spitting on women passing through the street, and according to local residents women in town are afraid of sitting in the front of buses.

(Hebrew)

The no. 451 bus from Ashdod to Jerusalem was stopped by ultra-orthodox men because a woman was seated in the front seat of the bus.  A police officer who arrived at the scene asked the woman, Tanya Rosenblit, to respect the wishes of the other passengers and sit in the back of the bus.

A group of concerned parents is trying to protest what they view as a growing  extremist bent in religious schools.  One of the group members, an employee of the Ministry of Education, was summoned for a talking-to and told to stop her activities against the Education Ministry.  One example of extremism cited by the group members is that “at the end of the year event the fathers won’t be able to see the girls perform and that there will even be separate events for boys and girls.”

Israel ranked three places lower than it did last year in the annual Global Gender Gap Index for 2011, placing in 55th place out of 135 states surveyed.  Israel has been sliding down the index since 2006, when it was placed in 35th place.  The index benchmarks the gender gap between men and women based on four criteria: economic opportunities, education, health and political empowerment.

More than 10,000 Arab women are employed in agriculture through local contractors, who pay them 100 NIS for an 8-10 hour workday.

(Hebrew)

According to Jerusalem PR professionals, there are hardly any women on public billboards and ads in the city any more, for fear of Haredi backlash.

Outgoing IDF Personnel Directorate head Maj. Gen. Avi Zamir sent a farewell document to Chief of Staff Benny Gantz. According to the document, the IDF has gone too far in responding to the demands of rabbis, and that for this reason it is excluding women from high-ranking position. Examples cited in the document include a battalion commander refusing female staff officers, the decreasing number of training posts for female soldiers, and combat troops refusing to accept female sharpshooting instructors.

Women who arrived at the Forum of Directors conference of the ultra-Orthodox newspaper Hatzofe in Jerusalem claim they were not allowed to attend the event because it was for men only. Conference speakers included, among others, Minister of Finance Yuval Schteinitz, and the mayor of Jerusalem, Nir Barkat.

(Hebrew )