MK Avigdor Liberman said Sunday he will not allow gender-segregated sidewalks by city councils and will move to cancel the law permitting gender-separate study tracks in advanced degrees, warning against what he called the 'Bnei Brak syndrome' spreading across the country. He also pledged that during his watch, no soldier would be denied entry to any Israeli city.
MK Avigdor Liberman (Yisrael Beiteinu) issued a sharp statement Sunday evening vowing to block the spread of gender segregation practices he attributes to the Haredi city of Bnei Brak. Speaking in an interview relayed by N12, Liberman said city councils would not be permitted to establish separate sidewalks for men and women and pledged to cancel the recently-approved law allowing gender-separate study tracks in master's and doctoral programs. He also expressed concern over incidents in which soldiers have been denied entry to Haredi cities, stating: 'In our watch, it will not happen that a soldier cannot enter a city in Israel.'
The statement comes amid ongoing public controversy over gender segregation in Israel. Bnei Brak has pursued a policy of voluntary gender segregation on some streets, despite a 2017 Supreme Court ruling against it. Separately, the Knesset recently approved a bill permitting gender-separate academic tracks in advanced degrees, a law challenged by the Committee of University Heads in a High Court petition. Liberman, a long-time critic of Haredi political influence, has positioned himself as a secularist voice within the right-wing opposition.
The Zioneer has previously reported on Bnei Brak's gender-segregated sidewalk plans and the academic segregation law.
Source and signal
A single-sourced dispatch is never rated Confirmed or Strong. Its Signal strengthens only when a second, independent source corroborates it.
- Open-source intake