14 Mar Israel’s 11 most inspiring women

A poll conducted by Tel Aviv University in 2009 revealed that 65% of the Jewish Israeli community supported the availability of civil, gender-neutral marriage, even though 70% of those polled expressed that a religious ceremony was still personally important for their own wedding. asian-date.net/western-asia/israel-women In 2016, women protested that they had been discriminated against in Holocaust Remembrance Day observance. Bar-Ilan University, for example, announced it would allow women to read passages of text and play musical instruments at its Holocaust Remembrance Day, but would bar women from singing in order not to offend Orthodox Jewish males. The city of Sderot also limited women’s singing at public events to appease religious males.

• In 1998–1999, 54 officers were expelled from the IDF on charges of sexual misconduct while others faced demotion or imprisonment.
• In the eighteenth Knesset, one woman – Orly Levi-Abekasis – serves as one of the Deputy Speakers, another – Yirdena Miller-Horovitz – is the Secretary General and two women – Tzipi Hotovely and Ronit Tirosh – are committee chairpersons.
• In Germany it is double, in Denmark – 21 percent, in the United States – 31 percent, and in Great Britain – 44 percent.
• After dropping in the wake of last April’s election, the number of women voted into office has the chance to rise once again in the upcoming “do-over election” on September 17.
• The laws were a mere interpretative tool to be applied by the courts in applying legislative provisions.

The Ministry of Defense labelled six Palestinian civil society organizations as “terrorist” in October. Divorce and other personal status laws governed by religious courts continued to discriminate against women, and domestic violence rose during the Covid-19 pandemic. The authorities denied asylum seekers access to a fair and prompt refugee status determination process, and to economic support.

In 1950, 4.2 percent of local representatives were women; by 1978, 5.5%; and in 1993, 11%. In 2011, there were many women local representatives though only one woman, Yael German, was serving as a mayor of a local authority. In the eighteenth Knesset, one woman – Orly Levi-Abekasis – serves as one of the Deputy Speakers, another – Yirdena Miller-Horovitz – is the Secretary General and two women – Tzipi Hotovely and Ronit Tirosh – are committee chairpersons. Tzipi Livni, who has held minister portfolios in past governments, is the current of the largest Knesset party, the Labor Party, and is the head of the opposition. Since the establishment of the State of Israel, only thirteen women have served as cabinet ministers, including former-Prime Minister Golda Meir and former-Vice Prime Minister Tzipi Livni. While every government since 1992 has included at least one woman minister, at least seven of the thirty-three governments have featured zero women in power positions. While some women have been involved in political life since the founding of the first Jewish political institutions at the turn of the century, women in Israel are still under­represented in many areas of public life.

Palestinian elections have not been held since 2006, and both Hamas and the Palestinian Authority restrict women’s rights. Abortion is illegal in the Palestinian Territories and women must have permission from a “guardian” to travel from the blockaded Gaza Strip, according to a Hamas-run court, as well as permission from Israel or Egypt, which control Gaza’s borders. Women in Israel earn 67 percent of what men earn, according to the 2020 Gender Index conducted by the Center for the Advancement of Women in the Public Sphere at the Van Leer Jerusalem Institute.

Feminist organizations

By examining women’s status in these various legal forums, we can obtain an overview of the position of women in Israeli society. After dropping in the wake of last April’s election, the number of women voted into office has the chance to rise once again in the upcoming “do-over election” on September 17. In the context of Israeli politics, it is the individual parties that possess the greatest ability to increase female representatives’ presence in the Knesset and access to senior roles. Looking ahead, these pressures are only more likely to increase with the expected growth in support for Haredi parties. While the anticipated surge in percentage of the ultra-orthodox in Israel’s population over the next few decades will probably translate into more seats for Haredi parties, the fragmentation in Israeli politics already makes it very difficult to form a government without them.

Many women are involved in political parties, but their numbers have tended to not be reflected in party leadership or on party lists for elected office. In the January 2013 election, however, three parties that won representation in the Knesset were headed by women – Shelly Yachimovich for Labor; Tzipi Livni for Ha’Tnuah; and, Zehava Gal-On for Meretz – possibly signaling a changing of the guard of sorts. The figures of women in local government suggests that political parties consider the inclusion of at least one woman on local councils a political necessity.

Combat roles

Women in Israel and Palestine have consistently been leaders in the process to bring peace to the Middle East, including by demonstrating against the occupation on International Women’s Day in March 2015. Damaged infrastructure, reduced services, food insecurity and displacement caused by the occupation and subsequent conflicts have had a particular impact on women, notably in the marginalized Palestinian territories. The assignment of Knesset members to committees is determined by negotiations between the different parties and in accordance to their size. Regardless of the identities and stances of the parties present at the negotiation table, however, talks almost always result with women underrepresented in or absent from the committees seen as most important. By the time of the dissolution of the 20th Knesset for example, only one out of the fifteen members of the prestigious Finance Committee was a woman. Ironically, these numbers actually reflect a significant improvement over the past few decades. Although between 1961 and 1999 the number of acting female Knesset Members never rose above twelve, or 10 percent of acting MKs, representation surged between 1999 and 2015 from 14 to 29 female MKs.

The Public Sphere: Politics, Economics, and the Military

Many Israeli women were accepted to the pilot selection phase in the Israeli Air Force flight academy some completed it successfully. The first female jet fighter pilot, Roni Zuckerman, received her wings in 2001. By 2006, the first female pilots and navigators graduated from the IAF training course, and several hundred women entered combat units, primarily in support roles, like intelligence gatherers, instructors, social workers, medics and engineers. When the Second Lebanon War broke out, women took part in field operations alongside men.