The Chair of the Ministers' Committee on the Status of Women, Minister Limor Livnat (Likud), said Sunday that gender segregation in buses that operate within hareidi cities was acceptable. Her statement was seen by militant feminist activists as not extreme enough, and she was pilloried in the press by the extremists.
Livnat told Arutz Sheva that in her opinion, "We do not need to go into people's plates, when the phenomenon [of gender separation] exists in areas that are all-haredi." In areas where a mixed population resides, she said, gender segregation is unacceptable.
"I am not talking about Bnei Berak or about Ashdod," she explained. "I am talking about places like Betar Iilit, where there is no single secular person. All of its residents are haredim and they have a certain lifestyle."
"I do not think that we need to force a different lifestyle on them," she said.