I do not know what happened with that suit - I have not yet heard that it has been discussed or decided upon, so I assume it is still an open case.
Some lawmakers have decided not to wait for the Supreme Court decision, and are taking the same idea via a different route - legislation in the Knesset.
MK Yifat Kariv
According to Ladaat, MK Yifat Kariv (Yesh Atid) proposed a law, that passed yesterday in its initial reading in the Knesset, that would deduct funding by 15% from any party that does not include women, one woman out of every three candidates, on its list. Mk Hanin Zoabi (Balad) also proposed a similar law, deducting 30%.
MK Kariv explained that women are 51% of the population, but do not reach those proportions of representation in the elected bodies in local leadership.
MK Moshe Gafni (UTJ) opposed the proposal, claiming that this proposal actually hurts women, as people would say this or that woman is only included on the list because they have to be, for the money, and not because they are qualified. Gafni said that his party, UTJ, has supported affirmative action for women for senior management positions and local government. Gafni says a law is not what is needed, but simply encouraging such appointments. He accused the secular of hypocrisy, as in the recent elections, out of 256 municipalities, only 3 women were elected.
He talks about encouraging women into leadership positions while UTJ will not include women on the party list. And, as the recent elections saw, when haredi women tried to run on independent lists, or other party lists because they could not do it through the haredi parties, they were pressured to drop out.
The proposal passed its initial reading by a vote of 44 in favor to 13 against. The vote will move to be debated in the relevant Knesset committees and then will be prepared for further voting in the Knesset.
If/when this law will be passed in its eventual final votes, I cannot wait to see how some parties will deal with it. Will they simply forgo that money or will they bite the bullet and integrate women into their lists?
------------------------------------------------------ Reach thousands of readers with your ad by advertising on Life in Israel ------------------------------------------------------
