New Rabbinical Courts Will Lead To Oppression Of Women

[Purveyor]

Haaretz Editorial

While the public has been kept informed of various emerging deals for the appointment of new Supreme Court justices, behind its back, a new and worrisome deal is taking shape. This is a deal forged within the Bar Association, and it entails depriving women of any representation on the committee that appoints rabbinical court judges.

As Yair Ettinger reported in Monday's Haaretz, it seems that the vote the Bar is slated to hold Tuesday will, for the first time in 12 years, result in a sweeping majority for the representatives of the Haredi (ultra-Orthodox ) parties, while moderate groups that have worked to further women's rights in the rabbinical courts will be shunted aside. This is a change with devastating implications: It means the reactionary Haredi approach will gain control of the rabbinical courts.

A fierce battle has raged in recent years between proponents of this approach and representatives of liberal factions within the religious Zionist movement, headed by groups such as Kolech, Mavoi Satum, the Center for Women's Justice, Ne'emanei Torah Va'Avodah and others. This battle revolves around the rigid and humiliating approach many rabbinical court judges adopt toward women. Battered wives seeking a divorce, women seeking to convert, women who underwent conversions that these courts refused to recognize or retroactively annulled - all are victims of a system that is becoming more and more extreme, forcing them to traverse a vale of tears.

Giving women representation on the committee that appoints rabbinical court judges improved the situation slightly; sometimes, women representatives even managed to thwart the appointment of a particularly hard-line judge. But now, thanks to the web of unacceptable political deals being spun by attorney Yori Geiron and his colleagues at the Bar, in conjunction with Haredi extremists, who do not represent the broader Haredi public and cause harm to many Haredi women as well, even this achievement is being undone. The rabbinical courts will complete a reactionary turnaround whose essence is the oppression of women.

MORE...

http://www.haaretz.com/print-edition/opinion/new-rabbinical-courts-will-lead-to-oppression-of-women-1.396972

[holdencaufield]

1. It's a shame...

... you show absolutely no concern for the oppression of women anywhere OUTSIDE of Israel.

[parkia00]

2. Where did Purveyor say such a thing?

Where did you see evidence that he "show absolutely no concern for the oppression of women anywhere OUTSIDE of Israel"????

Just for the record... again. Pointing out the wrong doings of others as a cover or justification of the wrong doings of the faction you support is really daft! Not to mention, it makes you look like a bloody idiot.

[holdencaufield]

3. Not at all

Just ANOTHER attempt to demonize Israel for things that happen in every country on the face of the earth. If there is sex discrimination in Israel, that is a terrible thing. However, bringing it up in the I/P forum without a mention of the horrible oppression of women in the neighbouring countries shows that the poster isn't interested in the oppression of women -- only in de-legitimatizing Israel.