ISRAEL
The saga of gender-separate training courses for the Israeli Public Service has taken another turn, with the National Labour Court freezing a decision of the Jerusalem Court that ordered them shut down.
The National Court said the all-male course for Haredi (ultra-Orthodox Jews) could continue until a final ruling was issued.
The Jerusalem Labour Court had instructed the Civil Service Commission (CSC) to either add 10 women to the men-only course or shut it down.
The course, called Influencers, is a pilot program designed to help integrate Haredi graduates into the Public Service for employment in Government Ministries, national bodies and Local Government.
It began for men in January, while a course for Haredi women was slated to begin in October.
However, the Israel Women’s Network, a women’s rights advocacy group, submitted a petition against the CSC, saying gender separation contravened Israel’s labour laws and discriminated against women.
The network said demands for gender-separate learning came only from extremist voices and there were Haredi men and women who were willing to study with members of the opposite sex.
The Jerusalem Court agreed with the petition; however, the CSC appealed the ruling.
It argued that cancelling the course would harm efforts to integrate ultra-Orthodox men and women into the workforce, particularly in the Public Service.
In its appeal, the state argued there was no practical feasibility of having Haredi men and women study together, but did note that graduates of the program would be employed in a mixed-gender environment.
It also contended that abolishing the course would be unfair towards those who had studied in it for the past three months, and would harm the trust of the Haredi public in the attempt to integrate members of the ultra-Orthodox sector into public sector ranks.
It said the programs were not offered simultaneously in order to learn from the pilot program and apply those lessons to subsequent classes; the men’s course was started first simply because Haredi men had a dramatically lower employment rate than Haredi women.
In the future, it said, men’s and women’s courses would be offered simultaneously.
Jerusalem, 23 April 2018
