Mashva VeMa’ala: Equal and More
Every Friday, we round up the week’s most important gender news from Israel — elections, court rulings, policy fights, and the stories shaping women’s lives across the country. So bookmark this page and check back here each week to stay in the loop.
Here’s the latest:
August 14, 2026
1. 2026 Elections: One Month Until Candidate Lists Close—How Many Women Will Be in the Next Knesset?
The Likud primaries will take place on Monday, with only seven women running on the general list (MK Tsega Melaku withdrew this morning) and 13 competing for the “new woman” slot. This means that only two or three women are currently expected to secure realistic, electable positions. A new candidate, Aliza Bloch, has joined Gideon Erdan’s party, which has yet to commit to a gender-balanced zipper list. In the emerging joint list of the Arab parties, there are no women among the top eight candidates.
Meanwhile, more than 3,200 women and men participated in the “Ultra-Orthodox Women’s Primary,” demonstrating that there are ultra-Orthodox women who want—and are able—to represent their community. One month before candidate lists are submitted, the Israeli Democrats and Yashar remain the only parties committed to 50% women and a zipper system.
▶️ Bottom line: The answer to what the next Knesset will look like depends on how many women are placed in electable positions. The coming month will be the test: which parties will present gender-equal candidate lists, and which will settle for asking women for their votes at the ballot box.
2. Sexual Harm Doesn’t Get Shorter—But the Sentence Does
Two recent court rulings have once again highlighted the gap between the severity of sexual offenses and the sentences imposed. In the case of the gang rape at the Red Sea Hotel in Eilat, the Supreme Court reduced the sentences of several of those convicted, including two minors convicted of rape. Meanwhile, IDF reserve Captain Ofir Menachem, who was convicted of sexually assaulting two female soldiers under his command, was released after serving just 12 months in prison.
▶️ Bottom line: When those who commit sexual offenses are once again given reduced sentences, what message does that send to the survivors whom we ask to find the courage to come forward and report what happened?
3. A Female Majority on Boards? Not According to the Interior Ministry
The Interior Ministry refused to approve the appointments of senior women executives and female public representatives to the boards of municipal corporations in Gezer, Rehovot, and Drom HaSharon—because the appointments would have resulted in a female majority.
▶️ Bottom line: For decades, a male majority in decision-making rooms raised no red flags. It is striking that the state has suddenly discovered the need to protect “gender balance” precisely when women are poised to become the majority.
4. #Harasser_StepDown
Women Against Violence and As-Siwar – Arab Feminist Movement launched a campaign calling on those who have sexually harassed women to step down from public positions, and urging political parties, institutions, and media outlets to stop granting legitimacy, platforms, and respect to those who abuse their power and status to harm women.
▶️ Bottom line: Those who harm women should not be given further power over them—and should not be allowed to remain in positions of influence.
August 7, 2026
1. 2026 Elections – 50% Women in the Change Bloc
This week, Naftali Bennett announced that four more women are joining his “Beyachad” party list, giving women a majority on the slate. The new candidates are Bruria Naim, Esti Kobo, Orly Harel, and Olesya Kantor. Lily Ben Ami has joined Yisrael Beiteinu, while the Yashar! party continues to have a female majority on its list following the addition of Yaffa Tabagja. For the first time, the Change Bloc could have women make up around 50% of its candidates.
▶️ Bottom line: In exactly one month, the candidate lists for the Knesset will close. Now is the time to demand that every party not only talk about women’s representation, but place women in realistic, electable positions.
2. August – The Price Mothers Pay
An analysis published this week, based on data from the Pitchon Lev organization, found that a family with three children may see its expenses double during August. But beyond the financial cost, women are usually the ones who reduce their working hours, take more vacation days, or give up professional opportunities to bridge the gap between the long summer break and the working day.
▶️ Bottom line: It doesn’t have to be this way. Other countries have already introduced legislation to support working families. So which party will put this issue on its agenda?
3. Don’t Fight Women Who Fight
This week, senior Religious Zionist rabbis met with Defense Minister Israel Katz and demanded an end to efforts to encourage religious women to enlist, a reduction in mixed-gender military service, and restrictions on women serving in combat roles. These demands follow a series of incidents in recent months in which women’s very presence in the IDF has once again become a matter for negotiation.
▶️ Bottom line: Women’s right to choose to serve, command, and fight must not be curtailed in response to sectoral pressure or political considerations. No decisions about us without us.
4. The Shame Is Changing Sides: Sexual Violence Has Consequences
This week, the court ordered serial harasser Gal Hizkiyahu Tenenbaum to pay NIS 110,000 in compensation to content creator Maya Li Levy following years of sexual harassment. In a post she published after the ruling, she wrote: “I want every woman experiencing sexual harassment to know: your body is not public property, your silence is worth fighting against, and sometimes justice wins.”
▶️ Bottom line: Anyone who chooses to turn a woman’s life into hell should know that there is a personal, public, financial, and legal price to pay. We will not stay silent. We will fight—and demand that the system stand with survivors.
July 31, 2026
1. 2026 Elections
This week, the Religious Zionism party held its primaries, with the result that only one woman secured a realistic, electable position on the party list. Meanwhile, the Arab parties are preparing to run on a joint list, where a similar picture is expected. At the same time, the “First Primary for Ultra-Orthodox Women” initiative was launched, while the Noam party announced that, for the first time, it will include a woman on its candidate list and establish a women’s campaign headquarters.
▶️ Bottom line: As long as women are not placed in electable positions, half the population remains underrepresented—and the political agenda reflects that reality.
2. The Road to the Ballot Box Is Still Too Long for Arab Women
A new survey by the “Abraham Initiatives” points to significant barriers to Arab women’s political participation: only 63% say they intend to vote in the upcoming elections; 41% believe that politics is “a man’s domain”; and about a quarter do not feel comfortable at polling stations. At the same time, 53% of respondents believe that greater representation of women on candidate lists would increase women’s voter turnout.
▶️ Bottom line: Those who want to see more women at the polls need to ensure that more women are represented on candidate lists. Women’s representation is not only a result of political participation – it is also a condition for it.
3. Public Space Belongs to Everyone—Regardless of What They Wear
This week, it was reported that 14-year-old girls visiting a rafting site on the Jordan River were asked to cover up because the site was open that day to the ultra-Orthodox community. In another incident, a young woman who visited a clinic in Modi’in Illit was asked to wear a gown over her tank top. Meanwhile, the women’s movement “Bonot Alternativa” blocked sidewalks in several cities with signs reading, “Women are prohibited from using this sidewalk,” to illustrate the dangers of normalizing the exclusion of women.
▶️ Bottom line: Public space belongs to everyone. There is no place for gender segregation or dress requirements that are not mandated by law—and no place for normalizing them.
4. We Will Not Stay Silent When Survivors Are Silenced
The Supreme Court has allowed singer Moshiko Mor, who is charged with two counts of rape and an act of sodomy, to resume performing. Meanwhile, the Police Internal Investigations Department closed the criminal case against a senior Lahav 433 officer who was suspected of sexual offenses against a female police officer under his command. He is expected to return to his position, while the complainant was offered a transfer to a different role.
▶️ Bottom line: When the system is quick to return defendants or suspects to positions of power while complainants are the ones who bear the consequences, it sends a troubling message to every future survivor. This is not how we protect survivors; this is how we silence them.
July 24, 2026
1. Segregation Moves from the Knesset to Higher Education
Following the passage of the law expanding gender segregation in higher education, five members of Israel’s Council for Higher Education resigned in response to the Minister of Education’s directive to begin implementing it. In their resignation, they warned that the law would harm women, undermine academic freedom, and erode the quality of higher education.
▶️ Bottom line: As Dr. Esti Reider Indursky – one of the six ultra-Orthodox women who petitioned the High Court of Justice against the law – aptly put it: “There is no such thing as a little segregation. Segregation is not a step along the way—it is the way.”
2. 2026 Elections – The Zipper System Takes Center Stage
After the Democrats presented a gender-balanced zipper list in this week’s primary election, Gadi Eisenkot was asked whether his party would also adopt a 50:50 candidate list. For the first time, he gave a clear answer: yes. In Yisrael Beiteinu, businesswoman Billy Rubin has joined the party’s slate. In the Religious Zionism party, primaries will be held on Monday, with only two women among the ten candidates: Minister Orit Strock and MK Michal Waldiger. Meanwhile, the ultra-Orthodox parties remain closed to women, and in the negotiations between the Arab parties over a joint list, no women are expected to be placed in realistic, electable positions.
▶️ Bottom line: The 2026 elections may mark a turning point. Now is the time to ask every party leader: Will your party list be a zipper list?
3. Who Gets to Sit on the Panel, Shape the Narrative, and Interpret the News?
As Israel’s election campaign gets underway, women’s representation on television news panels is declining. According to data from the 50:50 Initiative, women accounted for just 33% of commentators on Channel 12 News, 30% on Kan 11, 23% on Channel 13 News, 16% on Channel 14, and 26% on i24. Who sits around the commentators’ table does more than explain reality, it also helps shape it.
▶️ Bottom line: Women make up 50% of the population. It’s time they also made up 50% of the voices on news panels.
4. Golda Meir’s Legacy—Now Enshrined in Law
Fifty years after her death, the Knesset passed legislation, initiated by MKs Merav Michaeli and Pnina Tamano-Shata, to commemorate Prime Minister Golda Meir. The new center established in her honor will focus on the study of women’s leadership and statesmanship, and its governing council will be chaired by a woman.
▶️ Bottom line: Sometimes it takes 50 years to do justice. It is fitting that Prime Minister Golda Meir’s life story and legacy will be preserved and shared with future generations.
July 17, 2026
1. Basic Law: Torah—Not Equality
This week, the Knesset passed the Basic Law: Torah Study, granting Torah study constitutional status while the principle of equality remains absent from Israel’s Basic Laws. By giving constitutional recognition and preference to Torah study – an activity associated primarily with Orthodox men – the law may further undermine women’s rights and reshape the character of the state.
▶️ Bottom line: The Basic Law: Torah Study did not create the trend toward exclusion, but it gives that trend constitutional legitimacy and political momentum—allowing it to move from the halls of the Knesset into everyday reality.
2. The Gender Segregation Law in Higher Education – and the High Court Challenge
The Knesset also approved legislation expanding gender segregation in higher education to include master’s and doctoral programs and, for the first time, public spaces on university campuses. A first petition challenging the law has already been filed with the High Court of Justice by ten academics together with six ultra-Orthodox women. According to higher education leaders and other professional experts, the law will harm women faculty members, female students, the quality of higher education, and the integration of ultra-Orthodox Israelis into the workforce.
▶️ Bottom line: This law is about more than higher education. It legitimizes gender segregation and broadens its acceptance as a practice of exclusion.
3. Bnei Brak: The Public Says “Enough Is Enough”
This week, plans to introduce gender-segregated sidewalks in Bnei Brak were revealed. Following public pressure, petitions to the High Court of Justice, and appeals to the Attorney General, some of the segregation signs were removed. Still, the direction of these developments remains deeply concerning.
▶️ Bottom line: Public spaces belong to everyone. Gender exclusion should never be dismissed as an isolated or local issue, because experience shows that it rarely remains confined to one place.
4. 2026 Elections – Who Will Sit in the Next Knesset?
This week, Israel’s next election was officially scheduled for October 27, with party candidate lists to be finalized by September 7. In the Democrats’ primary, 19 of the 51 candidates are women, with the party using a zipper system that alternates women and men on its candidate list. By contrast, only about a quarter of the candidates on the Religious Zionism list are women. Under the Likud’s primary rules, only five of the top 50 places on the party list are reserved for women.
▶️ Bottom line: Now is the time to demand equal representation from every political party. The candidates who secure places on party lists over the next two months will be the ones making decisions for the next four years. No decisions about us, without us.
July 10, 2026
1. Basic Law: Torah Study – Moving Toward the Constitutional Entrenchment of Inequality
The government is rapidly advancing the proposed Basic Law: Torah Study toward its second and third readings. The bill seeks to grant Torah study constitutional status, giving preferential recognition and benefits to ultra-Orthodox men while undermining the principle of equality.
▶️ Bottom line: When the rights and privileges of one group are entrenched in a Basic Law, the rights of women and other groups are pushed further to the margins.
2. Expanding Gender Segregation in Higher Education – Another Step Toward the Exclusion of Women
This week, the Knesset Education Committee approved for its second and third readings a bill to expand gender segregation in higher education. The legislation extends gender-segregated programs to graduate degrees and even to public spaces on university campuses—despite the professional position of Israel’s university presidents, contrary to the High Court’s rulings, and after findings by the Council for Higher Education showing the ineffectiveness of such segregation were withheld from the public.
▶️ Bottom line: Gender segregation is a dangerous practice. It undermines the principle of equality and creates a pathway for the exclusion of women.
3. Prostitution and Human Trafficking – The Law Exists, but Enforcement Does Not
A report released this week by the State Comptroller exposed an ongoing failure to enforce Israel’s law prohibiting the purchase of sexual services and to combat human trafficking. Despite authorities having information about hundreds of locations where prostitution is taking place, enforcement is lacking in most cases, and Israel now faces the risk of a downgrade in its international ranking on efforts to combat human trafficking.
▶️ Bottom line: Without effective enforcement, the state is failing to protect its most vulnerable women.
4. Who Is Protecting Our Collective Safety?
This week, the number of people murdered in Israel’s Arab society reached 152 since the beginning of the year. As the crisis of violence continues to deepen, more and more women fear moving through public spaces alone, while personal safety continues to be pushed down the national agenda.
▶️ Bottom line: The government’s first responsibility is to protect the lives and safety of all its citizens before advancing sectoral legislation.
5. 2026 Elections: More Women Are Running—and the Public Expects Greater Representation
This week, Talia Lankri (Yisrael Beiteinu), Shira Shapira (the party led by Chili Tropper and Yoaz Hendel), and Dvora Sharipian Bachar (Yashar) announced their candidacies for the next Knesset. At the same time, a new survey by the 50:50 Initiative found that women—especially younger women—consider women’s representation a significant factor when deciding which party to support. The findings send a clear message to party leaders: it is time to adopt the zipper system for party lists.
▶️ Bottom line: Women make up more than 50% of the population. It’s time for every party to reflect that reality. No decisions about us, without us.