Human Rights in Israel - Women's Rights

Women's Rights

Women in Israel have been guaranteed gender equality since the establishment of the state in 1948. This has enabled women to actively participate in Israeli life. The Israeli Declaration of Independence states: “The State of Israel (…) will ensure complete equality of social and political rights to all its inhabitants irrespective of religion, race or sex.”

Israel was the third country in the world to be led by a female prime minister, Golda Meir, and in 2010, women's parliamentary representation in Israel was 18 percent, which is above the Arab world's average of 6 percent and equals that of the U.S. Congress. Still, it trails far behind the Scandinavian countries' 40 percent average

The Israeli parliament, The Knesset, has established “The Committee on the Status of Women,” to address women’s rights. The stated objectives of this committee are to prevent discrimination, combat violence against women, and promote equality in politics, lifecycle events and education. In 1998, the Knesset passed a law for "Prevention of Sexual Harassment".

However, the fact that large parts of Israeli life is governed by religious laws instead of secular, means that many forms of discrimination of women are legally allowed in Israel, which is a continued matter of concern to the U.S. State Department, as described in their annual International Religious Freedom Report, most recently in their 2009 report:

• The Government, through the Chief Rabbinate, discriminates against women in civil status matters related to marriage and divorce. Under the Jewish religious court's interpretation of personal status law, a Jewish woman may not receive a final writ of divorce without her husband's consent. Consequently, thousands of women, so-called agunot--"chained women"--are unable to remarry or have legitimate children because their husbands have either disappeared or refused to grant divorces. Rabbinical tribunals have the authority to impose sanctions on husbands who refuse to divorce their wives or on wives who refuse to accept divorce from their husbands, but they can not grant a divorce without the husband's consent, and women can not seek redress in civil courts.
• The only in-country Jewish marriages the Government recognizes are those performed by the Orthodox Jewish establishment; and the Government does not allow civil marriages (e.g., secular ceremonies performed by state or municipal authorities) or marriages performed by Conservative, Reform or Reconstructionist rabbis. In order to marry in government-recognized ceremonies, Jews have to undergo marriage counseling administered by the Orthodox religious authorities. As part of this counseling, all Jews—including the secular majority and those who practice reform or conservative Judaism—are instructed to respect traditional Orthodox family roles. A brochure used in the counseling during the reporting period compared women to clay and urged the husband to "shape and mold her as he pleases." The husband is also instructed not to become "spineless" or tolerate disrespectful behavior from his wife: "If she is disrespectful you must not give in; you can become angry and stop talking to her until she realizes she is wrong." The husband is also admonished to compliment his wife regularly, "even if it is a lie," because "a woman who has not been complimented is like a fish out of water."
• Governmental authorities prohibit mixed gender prayer services at religious sites in deference to the belief of most Orthodox Jews that such services violate the precepts of Judaism. At the Western Wall, the holiest site in Judaism, men and women must use separate areas to visit and pray. Women also are not allowed to conduct prayers at the Western Wall while wearing prayer shawls, which are typically worn by Jewish men, and are not permitted to read from Torah scrolls.