ISRAEL
The Jerusalem District Labour Court has made a final ruling allowing gender-separate training courses for Haredi (ultra-Orthodox) men and women in the Public Service.
In its decision, the court laid out strict conditions which will require each instance of separate classes to be justified.
The ruling is regarded as significant given the national importance attached to integrating Haredi men and women into the workforce on the one hand and the accompanying concerns of religious-based gender separation in the public domain on the other.
The ruling relates to a pilot program set up by the PS to help integrate Haredi graduates for employment in Government Ministries, national bodies and Local Government.
The tender initially published by the Public Service stated that the course would be gender separate however the Israel Women’s Network filed a petition claiming that gender separation was inherently discriminatory and prohibited by Israeli employment law.
The petition was initially accepted, then frozen by a higher court, and eventually returned to the Jerusalem District Labour Court.
In its final decision the court ruled that if in the future the Public Service wanted to conduct gender-separate courses the tender must include courses for both men and women, and those courses must run in parallel.
It also required the State to provide research and polling information proving that gender separation was necessary to attract Haredi recruits, and a legal opinion about the legality of the tender from a Deputy Attorney-General within 45 days of the beginning of the course.
Director of the Israel Women’s Network, Michal Gera Margaliot (pictured) said her organisation had always supported the State’s efforts to integrate Haredi into the Public Service.
“The path is not, and cannot be, gender separation, which perpetuates and deepens discrimination,” Ms Margaliot said.
“Because of the current law suit we expect that the Civil Service will make the right conclusions and integrate with greater strength Haredi men and women without separation.”
Jerusalem, 10 August, 2018
