Politicians fume as ultra-Orthodox neighborhood grocery found setting men-only hours

Yesh Atid and Yisrael Beytenu lawmakers reacted furiously on Tuesday as a grocery store in an ultra-Orthodox neighborhood of Jerusalem was found to have been implementing men-only shopping times.

The politicians aimed their ire at the incoming coalition, which is poised to approve gender segregation in public spaces.

“It begins,” Prime Minister Yair Lapid warned in a tweet that featured a screenshot of the story, which was reported by the local Jerusalem news outlet Mynet.

Though Lapid and other politicians implied that this store’s policy was a response to plans by the presumed next government to pass a law permitting gender segregation, the practice has been in place for several months, from before November’s election. It had just not been widely reported in the media until Monday.

The policy, which started informally, was publicly announced with a sign outside the store, in the Jerusalem neighborhood of Mea She’arim, in late October, instructing the public that the grocery store would be open to men only from 11 a.m. until closing on Fridays and on the eves of holidays.

This is in clear violation of a 2000 Israeli law, which explicitly bans discrimination on the basis of gender and other criteria in public spaces, including stores.

In its announcement, which was posted to the door, the store said the decision was made “in light of requests from the neighborhood rabbis and a large portion of our customers.”

The statement added that the stricter enforcement was necessary as its previous informal policy was not sufficiently followed.

Though this policy predated the election, politicians from the secular Yisrael Beytenu and Yesh Atid parties misleadingly tied it to recent plans by the presumed incoming coalition to pass a law that would permit gender segregation in public spaces.

“The train has started to go off the rails. The message from this government-in-formation is reaching the ground, and the exclusion of women has again raised its head. We won’t allow this to happen,” said Yisrael Beytenu MK Oded Forer.

Other lawmakers, however, simply came out strongly against the store’s policy and vowed to fight it.

“Creepy segregation raises its ugly head in the Jerusalem, the capital. It started with public events and now it’s in the market. We won’t permit this clear violation of the half the population’s freedom to perform basic and simple activities like buying bread or milk. There are lines you just don’t cross,” said Yesh Atid MK Matti Sarfatti Harcavi.