Hagit Pe’er: A minority of women at the decision-making table encourages exclusion, discrimination and racism

Na’amat, the Histadrut women’s rights movement, is alarmed by how women are being excluded from the public arena. There are 32 ministers in Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s cabinet, and only six are women. Two of the parties in his coalition – the ultra-Orthodox United Torah Judaism and Shas – refuse, in principle, to include women on their slates of candidates for the Knesset, let alone to be represented by a female cabinet minister.

Based on the public positions, campaign promises, and coalition agreements of the various parties in Netanyahu’s new government, discriminatory legislation and policies, including measures that would permit gender segregation in public spaces, bar female soldiers from military units, and allow private businesses to refuse service to women on religious grounds, could be realized in the future.

The President of NA’AMAT, Hagit Pe’er, in response to the lack of representation in the Committee for the Appointment of Judges: “A government of men is a government that promotes legislation and appoints committees without adequate representation for women. The appointed committee will allow the government to appoint any judge it wants, making it a committee for appointing judges. There is a minority of women at the decision-making table, and the agenda encourages exclusion, discrimination, and racism that forces women’s organizations and civil society organizations not to stand by! We will not allow this government to trample on the rights of any group in Israel.”