Police remove feminists from gender-separated Tel Aviv event
After court rebukes Tel Aviv Municipality for trying to block gender-segregated Chabad rally in Rabin Square, protesters enter men’s section, chant ‘women's blood is not different.’
Police were forced to physically push back female protesters who attempted to enter the men's section Monday evening of a Lubavitch gender-segregated event in Tel Aviv that caused controversy after the courts ruled that it could proceed, despite the city's attempts to prevent it.
The Tel Aviv District Court ruled on Sunday that the "Messiah in the Square" rally could proceed, frustrating efforts by the Tel Aviv municipality to cancel it unless it allowed men and women to mingle.
After some 150 protesters demonstrated in Rabin Square, police said that they were disrupting public order as they chanted "women's blood is not different."
A petition was filed Thursday against the Tel Aviv Municipality to the Administrative Court following Tel Aviv's Mayor Ron Huldai's announcement that the event would only be allowed to take place on the condition that it is not gender-segregated.
Followers of the Lubavitcher Rebbe arranged the event honoring the rabbi, under the title: "Faith, joy, redemption." Singer Ariel Zilber and a children's' choir also performed at the event.
Sivan Mitts from Tel Aviv said that she attended the event unaware that she would be separated from the men.
"I came to participate in the event and I was told that there would be gender separation, but it would not be enforced. I stood on the men's side of the square and at some point a policeman told us to leave," she said. "After leaving, he told us to go to the women's side."
Earlier Monday, at the Knesset Committee on the Status of Women and Gender Equality, discussions were held on the widening phenomenon of the exclusion of women from the public sphere and methods with which to address the issue.
Committee Chair MK Aida Touma-Suleiman (Joint List) criticized the phenomenon, saying that the "trickle has become a flood."
"We are experiencing an offensive that seeks to remove women from the public sphere and it is spreading. Autonomy of a group cannot deviate from the laws of the state and from the norms long practiced. All public space belongs to women, not just the section which is marked for us," she said.
Attorney Miriam Zelkind, director of policy and legislation at the Women's Lobby, also commented on the matter during the dicsussion.
"We see how the exclusion of women, modesty demands and gender separation are becoming widespread and possibly the norm in Israeli society. We are especially concerned with its normalization," she said.
"Currently, those seeking equality are marked as the problematic ones. We are here to remind (people) that separate cannot be equal. Separation is demeaning, and any demand to separate a weaker group from a stronger one is a recipe for discrimination and a violation of rights," she argued.
The District Court criticized the city's handling of the matter after its attempt to cancel the religious-oriented event when it became clear that there would be separate seating and Mayor Ron Huldai was subject to pressure by women's groups.
While the municipality said it would honor the court's decision, it also promised that it would continue to insist that gender-segregated events do not take place in Tel Aviv.
"By doing so, the municipality draws a red line regarding discrimination and gender segregation in the public space," the municipality said in a statement.
Chabad organizers noted that the "Messiah in the Square" rally takes place every year, in addition to many other events held in public spaces with complete gender-separation.
