By Janet Ekstract, NEW YORK- According to a recent CNN article, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is using his influence with the ultra-orthodox in his coalition to eliminate women’s rights and moving the country toward “a more religious and conservative future.” Netanyahu who relies on the ultra-orthodox to keep his party afloat have been trying to pass bills to extend religious authority over daily live including promoting gender segregation in cultural events and education. According to global statistics, a major decline in women’s rights in Israel is significant since Israel’s global standing on gender equality has plummeted in the last five years. In the 2025-26 Women, Peace and Security Index, produced by Georgetown University, CNN reports that “Israel ranks 84 of 181 countries – behind Albania, Russia, and Saudi Arabia” in women’s equality. What is interesting to note is that prior to Netanyahu taking power, Israel ranked 27 in women’s rights.
Another contributing factor to those figures is a sharp drop in female representation in public life in Israel. Currently, only six of Israel’s 33 ministers are women and very few have senior roles. Netanyahu’s government has not made a single permanent appointment of a woman to the role of director-general over a span of 30 ministries. Neither do any women head up a political party in Israel while Netanyahu’s coalition includes only two parties with no women on their lists. As CNN quoted Daphna Hacker of Tel Aviv University’s Faculty of Law and Gender Studies: “The deterioration in Israel’s gender equality ranking is unprecedented, placing us in the lower half of countries worldwide- a stark contrast to decades in which Israel ranked among the leaders and was known as a pioneer in advancing women’s rights.” Hacker lauded historical firsts for women’s rights in Israel: the 1951 Equal Rights for Women Law, Golda Meir as one of the first female leaders in the world in 1969, the Israeli military’s mandatory conscription of women.
Hacker, who is also the chair of the Israel Women’s Network told CNN that women are now “virtually absent” from any key decisionmaking. She added: “There’s no doubt women’s status has waned in recent years,” further stating “We’ve never experienced such a backlash.” An example of this is a bill currently under debate in Israel’s Knesset (parliament) that could end up being finalized, that would dramatically expand the authority of state-run religious courts to handle civil disputes. At issue is the fact that such courts are run only by men whose decisions are made according to strict Jewish law which traditionally has never favored Jewish women. These same courts already have jurisdiction over marriage and divorce proceedings including for secular couples so under the proposed legislation, these same courts would gain even more authority to rule on financial disputes, business matters and potentially child custody issues. As a matter of religious doctrine among the ultra-orthodox Jews – the man is generally favored in these cases regardless of whether he is actually mentally fit or financially stable.
There have been numerous cases in Israel portrayed in documentaries and films about the glaring lack of rights Israeli women possess when it comes to matters within their marriage, divorce and financial settlements. As an Israeli women’s protest group Bonot Alternativa stated: “This bill seeks to place women’s fate in the hands of a religious judiciary that inherently discriminates against them.” The group further said: “We will not allow the government to force us into marriage with a system that despises us.” This presents the start contrast in Israel between secular Jewish society and those who fall within the spectrum of orthodox and ultra-orthodox, a much more extreme version of Judaism that relies on the Old Testament laws word-for-word. Israeli women have been highly critical of Israel’s rabbinical courts which are state-sanctioned religious courts that have legal authority over Jewish family law. Israeli women have called them out as a place of disadvantage, patriarchy and inequality – particularly in divorce with alimony and child support. In November, The Ruth and Emanuel Rackman Center at Bar Ilan University warned the proposed new bills will lead to “serious violations of divorcing women’s rights, potentially the most serious that the Israeli justice system has seen in years.” Additionally, the Center said if the new law passes, it will also apply to Muslim Sharia courts in Israel. What many don’t know is that under the guise of ‘religious law’ many Israeli wives are physically and sexually abused with no recourse in such strict courts of law.
