Division in Israel over gender-segregated buses

Israel court rules Jewish gender-segregated buses illegal but could not halt 'voluntary' segregation.

Middle East Online

'Mehadrin (kosher) buses are dead' JERUSALEM - Israel's Supreme Court ruled on Thursday that buses for ultra-Orthodox Jews that force women to sit apart from men are illegal, but it also said it could not halt voluntary segregation. The decision ended a three-and-a-half-year legal battle launched by a group of ultra-Orthodox women and their supporters, who challenged the rules on "kosher" bus lines catering to Israel's ultra-Orthodox Jewish community. "A public transport operator (like any other person) is not allowed to order or tell women where to sit or what to wear. They have the right to sit wherever they want on the bus," the Supreme Court said. "Tolerance is an important social principle that should be promoted, sometimes even at the expense of infringing on the rights of individual." The ruling comes years after the Israel Religious Action Centre (IRAC) filed a lawsuit against the Ministry of Transportation and two bus companies, accusing them of discriminating against women by operating the bus lines. The lines, which began running in 1998, required women passengers to wear modest clothing and to board and sit at the rear of the vehicle. IRAC filed the lawsuit after it said that at least five women were attacked verbally or physically and in some cases denied permission to board because they failed to observe the modesty and boarding/seating regulations. Anat Hoffman, the centre's executive director, called the Supreme Court's decision a "tremendous victory. "We are ecstatic. The fact that the court ruled that segregation on the buses in Israel is not in accordance with democratic values of equality, the equality of women, is fantastic," she said. "The mehadrin (kosher) buses are dead and gone and every bus is going to have two signs above each door proclaiming that everyone is able to sit anywhere on the bus they like." But she admitted disappointment with the court's decision to continue allowing women to "self-segregate" by voluntarily boarding the bus through the back door and sitting in the rear section. "The court unfortunately left one thing undone, they allowed the bus back door to remain open, which means that women who are trained to sit at the back will continue to enter there rather than going in the front," she said. "I would like them to shut that back door. I want the women to enter with the men through the front door, everyone together." But Hoffman, a prominent activist for women's rights, particularly in the religious context, said she expected the ruling would eventually pave the way for a single bus entrance for all men and women. "This is a huge step in the right direction," she said. "I think we're going to have to do the long haul and then next year they'll close the back door."