Yael Sara Rep, knitted news31.10.22 15:14 Fri. in Hashvan Tishpag
Zahva Galon (Photo: Avshalom Sashoni, Flash 90)
At a huge conference of the Meretz party held last week in Beit Jen and organized by MK Ali Salalha, there was a de facto separation between men and women who participated in the event – according to the testimony of one of the organizers of the event who spoke with “Srogi”, as well as documents from the conference published on social media. To the conference About 1,000 people came, and the senior members of the list, the chairman Zehava Galon, members of the Knesset Gabi Lasky and Michal Rosin participated.
The conference was held in a large hall, and in the photos published by Salalha himself on social media, men and women are seen sitting and sitting separately. One of the organizers of the event, a Meretz activist, said in a conversation with “Sroog”: “We were men next to women, not together, there was separation. We were together but not mixed. There were lines of women and girls and the men were the sheikhs.”
I saw in the pictures that the men sat separately and the women separately
“That’s right, each one separately, I didn’t see any signs, it was obvious. There were women and the men were next – each on a different side, we were each on a different side of the same hall.”
In a conversation with Srougi, MK Salalha claimed that “we don’t have separations”, and explained the photos in which men and women are seen sitting separately by “not sitting next to each other”.
“With us there are no separations, we do everything together – but not next to each other, in the same hall – but at a distance of a meter” Salalha said in a conversation with Serogs. Later, after an appeal was made for a response from the Meretz party, Salalha again contacted Srougi, and asked to emphasize again and again that “there was no separation”. He explained the actual separation that can also be seen in the photos by saying that naturally men and women who came to the event sat down next to their male friends and women next to their female friends.
MK Ali Salalha (Photo: Flash 90)
In additional photos from the event that Salalha shared on his Facebook account, the huge hall is seen to be full of men, who are sitting in the center. In another picture you can see women sitting at a distance from the men.
In contrast to the crowd, where men and women sat separately, members and Knesset members of the party, as well as its candidates, sat together without separation. In an attempt to negate the claim that there was actual gender segregation at the event, in Meretz they presented the photo of the MKs sitting together, women and men, as well as a photo in which a woman is seen in an area where only men are seen.
In a tweet published by MK Gabi Laski on her Twitter account about the event, she defined it: “An excellent conference of Meretz in Beit Jen – Druze, Arabs and Jews together. For equality, partnership and peace.”
The practice of segregation is illegal! This is what the High Court of Justice ruled regarding segregation on buses. And in this matter there is no difference between racial, ethnic or gender segregation.
— Zehavagalon (@zehavagalon) August 14, 2019
As I recall, Zehava Galon and the Meretz party have often spoken out on the issue of gender segregation. In 2019 Galon even wrote on her Twitter account that gender segregation should be prohibited by law.
Galon wrote at the time that “the practice of segregation is illegal! This is what the High Court ruled in the matter of segregation on buses. And in this matter there is no difference between racial, ethnic or gender segregation”
From Meretz it was given: “There was no separation, certainly not on our part as organizers. We did not decide for the people where to sit. Indeed, religious women voluntarily sat as a group among Druze men, on one side of the room, and secular women sat mixed with men. Each and every one by choice.”
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