Israel's Government Advertising Agency announced that it will end its practice of removing women in ads targeted towards the haredi sector due to complaints that the practice constituted segregation of women.
Government Advertising Agency is responsible for publishing notices relevant to the public. During past years, it had refrained from publishing pictures in haredi media with women in it out of sensitivity towards the community.
However, it decided to change its policies after the Reform movement's Israel Religious Action Center filed a complaint, arguing that the policy constituted women's segregation.
"The Government Advertising Bureau and the Ministry of Justice agree that the exclusion of women from the public sphere is an unacceptable phenomenon and that women should not be excluded from government advertising for the haredi population," said a statement published in Ynet.
This incident is not the first time the Governmant Advertising Agency has tangled with the haredi media. In October, it decided to yank all government advertising from the haredi Hapeles publication in wake of the newspaper's extremist stance against haredi IDF soldiers.
The move was approved by the Justice, Defense, and Internal Security Ministers, who decided that the government should not be supporting Hapeles when it has been running virulent incitement against haredi IDF soldiers for years.