Event Reports
Mrs. Orith Zuaretz, a new member of Knesset and member of the board of IWN, opened this special seminar with welcoming words to the Knesset members, women and men, the representatives of IWN and KAS as well as the large audience.
Mr. Reuven Rivlin, Speaker of the Knesset, confirmed that the representation of women in the higher instances of the state has to be enhanced, starting with most of the political parties. Israel has, however, witnessed important improvements during the last 20 years thanks to the work of organisations such as IWN. Mr. Rivlin reminded all that his predecessor as speaker of Knesset was Mrs. Dalia Itzik (who is still a member of Knesset) and that the 18th Knesset has 22 women members (an increase from 18 in the former Knesset).
The several Knesset members who intervened reiterated that the Declaration of Independence stated complete equality between men and women in all spheres of life – an equality which is still far from being achieved and that there is a great need for legislation in favour of women. A few examples were quoted, which denote complete anachronism of the law.
For Mrs. Tzipi Livni – the new opposition leader in the Knesset – the number of women Knesset members is still too low (22 women out of 120 Knesset members) and the relatively low status of women in Israel reflects on society as a whole.
Mrs. Livni recalled, however, that in spite of their limited number, women Knesset members could boast very important achievements to the benefit of women. These could only prove that legislation is the way to make effective changes and achieve real gender reforms. Therefore organisations such as IWN have the duty to foster political leadership among Israeli womenMrs. Rina Bar-Tal, chair of IWN, thanked the members of the Committee on the Status of Women for their work. Through this committee, which gathers Knesset members from all the parties, IWN has been able to prepare and put forward legislation proposals to the benefit of Israeli women. This committee, however, should work much harder to break the lack of knowledge and raise awareness among Knesset members.
To prove this point, Mrs. Nurit Tsur presented the “Report on the Promotion of Gender Equality in the 17th Knesset”. The report is concentrated on the parliamentary activities and gender related legislation:
- From all the preliminary proposals, only 7% were gender related.
- Of all the accepted preliminary bills, only 13% were gender related.
- And finally only 3% of all the passed laws were gender related.
Prof. Frances Raday concluded the seminar with a few reflections on the situation of women in Israel today. After more than two decades during which women organisations such as IWN initiated feminist activism to promote the status of women in all legal fields, it seems that women have reached the glass ceiling and no real improvement will be achieved if some basic laws such as “State and Religion” are not changed. Still, according to Prof. Raday, it is first urgent to enforce the rights which have already been recognized and secondly to continue fighting the battle over women’s rights in all spheres of life (economy, labour, welfare, family etc.).
The joint KAS-IWN joint projects will continue to address the issues that concern all women and cooperate very concretely with all the Knesset members and more specifically with the 22 women members who promised to act as a real coalition without political differences and ideologies to promote the status of women in Israel.
Catherine Hirschwitz