In a contentious vote held on Thursday, Israel’s national parliament, the Knesset, has given final approval to a divisive new law that legalizes gender segregation across postgraduate higher education programs across the country. The legislation cleared the legislative body with a narrow margin, recording 52 votes in favor compared to 43 votes cast against the measure.
Under the terms of the new law, accredited Israeli universities will gain legal permission to establish separate, gender-specific study tracks for students enrolled in master’s and doctoral degree programs. The law also formally codifies a 2021 ruling issued by the Israeli High Court of Justice, which had previously approved gender-segregated bachelor’s degree pathways when paired with a set of specific regulatory restrictions.
The bill was spearheaded by Knesset member Limor Son Har-Melech, a representative of the far-right Otzma Yehudit party led by Itamar Ben-Gvir. In remarks following the vote, Son Har-Melech framed the legislation as a tool to advance educational access for women from demographic sectors that she claimed have historically been denied equal educational opportunities.
Proponents of the new rule have echoed this framing, arguing that the policy will expand access to higher education for religious women, who often hold gender-separated learning as a core personal and religious requirement. Zvi Sukkot, a Knesset member from the far-right Religious Zionism party led by Bezalel Smotrich, added that the law serves to expand personal freedom of choice for students with differing religious needs.
However, the legislation has drawn fierce condemnation from opposition political figures and progressive lawmakers, who have decried the policy as a dangerous rollback of gender equality in Israeli public life. During the parliamentary vote, several opposition legislators held up protest signs emblazoned with the slogan “Segregation is exclusion” to demonstrate their opposition.
Avigdor Lieberman, leader of the opposition Yisrael Beiteinu party, issued a sharp rebuke of the government, accusing the ruling coalition of seeking to transform Israel into a repressive “Ayatollah state.” Drawing a parallel to existing gender segregation practices in the ultra-Orthodox city of Bnei Brak, where men and women often walk on separate sidewalks, Lieberman called on university and academic leadership across the country to refuse to implement what he labeled “this madness.”
Merav Michaeli, a senior Labour Party lawmaker, also criticized the new law, rejecting the argument that segregated education can ever be equal. “There is no such thing as segregated but equal,” Michaeli said, noting that the policy comes as part of a broader pattern of rollbacks to gender equality pushed by the current right-wing ruling coalition.