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Sep 3, 2018
Agudat Yisrael to stop banning women from the party, sort of
The news is reporting that Agudat Yisrael has decided to respond to the courts demands by acquiescing to remove the clause in the party platform that disallows women from being members of the party, essentially also blocking them from possibly running as a representative of the party.
Theoretically, by agreeing to remove the clause, women can officially join the party and then would also qualify to join leadership of the party in some way and become a representative and possibly run for a Knesset seat or a municipal representation position.
Deputy Minister Litzman stated explicitly that nothing will change because of this. Every person applying to join the party does so, according to the conditions of the party, by agreeing to follow the decisions and orders of the Council of Sages. So, basically, even if women decide to apply to join the party they do so knowing that the Council of Sages will not let them join the party, and it won't be the clause banning them but the decision of the Council of Sages..
As I said when the court issued the ultimatum, if the court wants to effect change in this issue, this can only be a first step. A party like Aguda does not have primaries, so opening it up to female membership does next to nothing to giving the women the ability to run for office - and that is if the women will even be allowed to join the party even without the clause! If the court wants to effect change, it has to take further steps.
And, I do not know why this is an issue only for Agudat Yisrael and not also for Degel Hatorah and for Shas.
Theoretically, by agreeing to remove the clause, women can officially join the party and then would also qualify to join leadership of the party in some way and become a representative and possibly run for a Knesset seat or a municipal representation position.
Deputy Minister Litzman stated explicitly that nothing will change because of this. Every person applying to join the party does so, according to the conditions of the party, by agreeing to follow the decisions and orders of the Council of Sages. So, basically, even if women decide to apply to join the party they do so knowing that the Council of Sages will not let them join the party, and it won't be the clause banning them but the decision of the Council of Sages..
As I said when the court issued the ultimatum, if the court wants to effect change in this issue, this can only be a first step. A party like Aguda does not have primaries, so opening it up to female membership does next to nothing to giving the women the ability to run for office - and that is if the women will even be allowed to join the party even without the clause! If the court wants to effect change, it has to take further steps.
And, I do not know why this is an issue only for Agudat Yisrael and not also for Degel Hatorah and for Shas.
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Labels:
Agudas Yisrael,
women
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The petition brought to the court was specifically about Agudah. As long as their ruling is not precedent setting it doesn't affect the other parties. That does not prevent another petition from being brought to court against the other Haredi parties about the same issue.
ReplyDeleteAs I stated when the court first made their ruling, they would rather allow Agudah to come up with a solution that is acceptable to the courts on their own rather than the courts being forced to set precedent. If the courts accept the change as resolving the issue brought by the petitioners, the problem goes away without any real change happening.