Here's How We'll Move the Fight Against Gender Segregation Forward

06/07/26

Despite widespread public opposition, the coalition pushed through the law allowing gender segregation in higher education—including in public spaces on campus such as cafeterias and libraries.

This is far from the end of the fight.

Our campaign is now entering its next phase. We will work to prevent the law from being implemented on the ground, support legal challenges against it, and fight to repeal it in the next Knesset.

Before this shameful law was passed, we did everything we could to stop it. On July 6, 2026, we came to the Knesset on behalf of nearly 70,000 Zazim members who joined our campaign against gender segregation. We brought signs, distributed the uniforms of our symbolic "Segregation Guards," and were joined by MK Adi Azuz, who stood with us at the protest and took signs inside the Knesset for fellow lawmakers to display. The demonstration received significant media coverage—you can read more about our actions in Hebrew, English, and Arabic.

Thanks to the campaign led by Zazim members, much of the media and the wider public came to recognize the law for what it really is. This is not a measure designed to expand educational or employment opportunities for religious communities. The law lays the groundwork for institutionalized discrimination against women—from female students who may be excluded from academic programs and classes, to women lecturers who may be barred from teaching certain courses, to the normalization of women's exclusion from public spaces.

Until we succeed in repealing the law, we will fight to prevent its implementation. University heads have already spoken out against the legislation, and our public campaign will give them the backing they need to refuse to enforce gender segregation on their campuses. That is why we are continuing to promote our petition and raise the funds needed to sustain this campaign beyond the next elections.

The law enabling gender segregation in higher education did not emerge in a vacuum. Enshrining discrimination against women in law is one of the clearest and most alarming manifestations of the government's broader assault on democratic institutions, civil rights, equality, and freedom of expression.

Defeat is simply not an option. With your support, we will continue challenging this law on every front until it is repealed in full.

Photos: Oren Ben Hakoon