00:00:13.000 --> 00:00:14.360
Okay.

00:00:15.320 --> 00:00:17.560
Interview Merav Michaeli, take 2.

00:00:27.200 --> 00:00:29.280
After I was elected in the primaries,

00:00:29.560 --> 00:00:32.560
there was this online discourse

00:00:32.640 --> 00:00:37.040
whether or not I'd use
feminine pronouns in the Knesset as well.

00:00:37.360 --> 00:00:39.080
I didn't understand the issue.

00:00:39.160 --> 00:00:41.240
I'll be in the Knesset
and stop being me?

00:00:41.320 --> 00:00:42.800
I'll dress up as a Knesset member?

00:00:42.880 --> 00:00:44.240
I mean, I don't get it.

00:00:44.320 --> 00:00:46.640
Men and women who love me,

00:00:46.720 --> 00:00:48.880
who want the best for me
always kept saying,

00:00:48.960 --> 00:00:50.880
"you have to stop talking
in feminine pronouns.

00:00:51.160 --> 00:00:53.680
"No one hears
the wonderful things you're saying.

00:00:53.760 --> 00:00:57.960
"You have the potential to make it,
this will ruin it for you.

00:00:58.520 --> 00:01:01.880
"It's annoying, it's too long,

00:01:01.960 --> 00:01:05.240
"it keeps you in that niche
that's all about women."

00:01:05.440 --> 00:01:07.960
But I keep reminding myself

00:01:08.160 --> 00:01:09.520
that that's the thing.

00:01:09.600 --> 00:01:12.240
Feminism is equality,
it's the battle for equality.

00:01:12.320 --> 00:01:14.440
Not only for women,
equality for all of society.

00:01:14.520 --> 00:01:17.840
And yes, I want it to be on the agenda

00:01:17.920 --> 00:01:18.880
and present all the time.

00:02:20.720 --> 00:02:24.400
Too many men think
that they can do whatever they want.

00:02:24.680 --> 00:02:29.400
Too many men think
that women are inferior.

00:02:29.480 --> 00:02:33.240
We want a more humane society,

00:02:33.320 --> 00:02:36.560
more genuine, more egalitarian,

00:02:36.840 --> 00:02:38.040
more feminine.

00:02:57.480 --> 00:02:58.760
Excuse me.

00:03:11.080 --> 00:03:14.080
When I got to the Knesset,
I was 42 years old.

00:03:14.160 --> 00:03:18.080
When I entered I had this sense

00:03:18.920 --> 00:03:20.520
of awe.

00:03:21.320 --> 00:03:22.840
We were few women in the Knesset,

00:03:22.920 --> 00:03:25.200
11 or 12 in all,
if I'm not mistaken.

00:03:25.280 --> 00:03:27.840
The Knesset is a man's world.

00:03:28.720 --> 00:03:30.720
Over the years I got used to it,

00:03:30.800 --> 00:03:33.480
being only with men

00:03:33.680 --> 00:03:35.840
everywhere I went.

00:03:35.960 --> 00:03:39.080
The men, the Knesset members,

00:03:39.360 --> 00:03:42.760
didn't look out for women.

00:03:42.920 --> 00:03:44.640
Women had to do it.

00:03:44.760 --> 00:03:46.160
We had to join forces.

00:03:46.240 --> 00:03:49.880
To pass laws, temporary provisions

00:03:49.960 --> 00:03:52.640
and so many other things and fight.

00:03:52.880 --> 00:03:53.960
We fought.

00:03:54.400 --> 00:03:57.880
Every third woman
at one point in her life

00:03:57.960 --> 00:04:00.320
is sexually harassed in the State of Israel.

00:04:00.400 --> 00:04:03.560
A woman's right
not to be harassed,

00:04:03.640 --> 00:04:05.960
not to be treated as a sex object,

00:04:06.040 --> 00:04:08.480
is still not a given.

00:04:09.320 --> 00:04:11.280
Why are you leaving the assembly?

00:04:11.360 --> 00:04:13.200
Don't sully the Knesset!

00:04:13.280 --> 00:04:14.800
You're filthy!

00:04:16.040 --> 00:04:19.640
Almost every law that is purely feminist

00:04:19.720 --> 00:04:21.800
was promoted by the women.

00:04:22.080 --> 00:04:24.840
So when I'm told that men

00:04:24.920 --> 00:04:26.440
can pass laws in women's favor as well,

00:04:26.520 --> 00:04:28.280
I say, they can,

00:04:28.480 --> 00:04:30.080
but it doesn't happen.

00:04:30.400 --> 00:04:31.360
It simply doesn't happen.

00:04:31.440 --> 00:04:35.000
Ultimately,
the more women there are in the Knesset,

00:04:35.080 --> 00:04:38.560
the more feminist women
there are in the Knesset,

00:04:38.640 --> 00:04:40.840
let alone in the government,

00:04:40.920 --> 00:04:45.960
over half of Israel's population
gets more rights.

00:04:46.040 --> 00:04:47.760
It's elementary.

00:05:08.720 --> 00:05:10.600
Rachel Cohen-Kagan
and Golda Meyerson

00:05:10.680 --> 00:05:12.840
both very much represent,

00:05:12.920 --> 00:05:13.920
I won't say edges,

00:05:14.000 --> 00:05:16.160
but two different perspectives

00:05:16.240 --> 00:05:17.920
on the woman's place in the Knesset.

00:05:18.000 --> 00:05:20.720
They both began their political careers

00:05:20.800 --> 00:05:22.920
in women's organizations.

00:05:23.280 --> 00:05:29.120
Golda Meir quickly left that niche
of women's organizations,

00:05:29.200 --> 00:05:31.160
she rose and flourished

00:05:31.240 --> 00:05:36.160
and conquered and reached places
that are not feminine is essence.

00:05:36.400 --> 00:05:37.800
Not Rachel Cohen-Kagan.

00:05:39.200 --> 00:05:42.880
She focused mainly
on society and welfare

00:05:42.960 --> 00:05:48.400
because her goal was to bring
what she called the feminine perspective,

00:05:48.480 --> 00:05:52.920
a perspective that has compassion,
that minds the other

00:05:53.000 --> 00:05:55.200
and understands
that there are disadvantaged populations

00:05:55.280 --> 00:05:57.880
and Rachel Cohen-Kagan's focus
was on just that,

00:05:57.960 --> 00:06:01.240
this issue of advancing women's rights.

00:06:02.360 --> 00:06:06.160
Rachel Cohen-Kagan wanted to legislate
the Women's Equal Rights law

00:06:06.240 --> 00:06:09.280
that grants women true equal rights.

00:06:09.360 --> 00:06:11.840
She really wanted to establish equality.

00:06:12.640 --> 00:06:15.840
It wasn't the Orthodox parties
that prevented this from her,

00:06:15.920 --> 00:06:19.440
rather the majority party in those days, MAPAI,

00:06:19.520 --> 00:06:26.200
that opted to give in to the demands
of the religious and Orthodox parties.

00:06:27.400 --> 00:06:29.320
The Woman's Equal Rights law

00:06:29.400 --> 00:06:32.120
means that I have the same rights as a man,

00:06:32.200 --> 00:06:39.000
except when it comes to the most important issue
pertaining to most women

00:06:39.160 --> 00:06:40.640
which is Family Law.

00:06:40.720 --> 00:06:45.320
Family Law from day one,
since the establishment of the State,

00:06:45.560 --> 00:06:49.080
doesn't grant Israeli women equal rights.

00:06:50.480 --> 00:06:52.400
The entity that makes the determinations

00:06:52.840 --> 00:06:56.400
in Family Law is the rabbinical court,

00:06:56.840 --> 00:07:00.360
the laws of which are explicitly discriminatory.

00:07:01.360 --> 00:07:04.280
Therefore, Rachel Cohen-Kagan herself

00:07:04.360 --> 00:07:05.680
didn't vote in favor of it

00:07:05.760 --> 00:07:08.520
because her party and the others

00:07:08.600 --> 00:07:12.640
turned it into something
that she herself couldn't vote for.

00:07:12.960 --> 00:07:17.200
And that can happen to a woman
in the Knesset when she's on her own,

00:07:17.280 --> 00:07:19.200
when there's no coalition of women.

00:07:34.400 --> 00:07:36.520
I really do love Golda.

00:07:37.760 --> 00:07:39.720
Thanks to her
we have National Insurance,

00:07:39.800 --> 00:07:42.360
we have the Hours of Work and Rest law,

00:07:42.440 --> 00:07:45.560
we have annual vacation, maternity leave.

00:07:45.640 --> 00:07:48.320
She worked in the Women Workers Council
for women's rights,

00:07:48.400 --> 00:07:51.440
that was her political career
way before she became a minister.

00:07:52.240 --> 00:07:54.680
For a whole hour
and very excited

00:07:54.760 --> 00:07:56.640
the candidate for prime minister

00:07:56.720 --> 00:07:58.840
faced a battery of photographers

00:07:58.920 --> 00:08:00.520
when she visited the president

00:08:00.600 --> 00:08:04.080
to receive his letter of appointment
as prime minister.

00:08:04.800 --> 00:08:08.320
Golda deemed herself
as fighting a broad battle,

00:08:08.400 --> 00:08:10.760
the national battle,
the Zionist movement,

00:08:10.840 --> 00:08:13.760
not specific problems pertaining to women.

00:08:19.800 --> 00:08:22.480
In Israel there was this perception

00:08:22.840 --> 00:08:24.720
that this is an egalitarian state.

00:08:24.800 --> 00:08:26.560
It's called the egalitarian myth -

00:08:26.640 --> 00:08:31.560
women were soldiers in the army,
women worked in the kibbutzes,

00:08:31.640 --> 00:08:34.680
women had full rights

00:08:34.800 --> 00:08:37.400
and the Zionist movement saw itself

00:08:37.520 --> 00:08:40.280
as having established
a totally egalitarian state.

00:08:40.720 --> 00:08:44.360
The young women who matured
during the wars,

00:08:44.440 --> 00:08:46.600
between '67 and '73,

00:08:46.680 --> 00:08:52.360
were more exposed to the revolutions
in North America, in the US,

00:08:52.440 --> 00:08:54.600
and started doubting the egalitarian myth.

00:08:55.760 --> 00:08:59.160
And this notion came as a surprise,

00:08:59.280 --> 00:09:01.200
mainly to the women
of Golda's generation.

00:09:01.280 --> 00:09:06.000
They couldn't understand
what these young women want.

00:09:06.360 --> 00:09:07.720
What are they talking about?

00:09:07.800 --> 00:09:09.080
Why aren't they happy?

00:09:21.120 --> 00:09:24.200
Back to the Knesset.
Rarely are there smiles

00:09:24.280 --> 00:09:27.240
during the exhausting discussions,
but today there were some indeed

00:09:27.320 --> 00:09:29.360
when Knesset Member Marcia Freedman proposed

00:09:29.440 --> 00:09:33.120
her slightly unusual motion for the agenda:

00:09:33.200 --> 00:09:35.160
Women being beaten by their husbands.

00:09:35.240 --> 00:09:41.240
One of every 100 husbands
attacks his wife on a regular basis.

00:09:41.320 --> 00:09:44.880
In the mid 70s,
Marcia Freedman tried

00:09:45.200 --> 00:09:46.960
to bring feminist insights to Israel

00:09:47.040 --> 00:09:50.560
that were customary in other countries
for many years,

00:09:50.640 --> 00:09:52.720
that there are indeed battered women,

00:09:52.800 --> 00:09:57.320
so people considered her
either unhinged or mentally ill

00:09:57.400 --> 00:10:00.880
and more or less
drove her out of town

00:10:00.960 --> 00:10:02.720
and she ultimately left the country.

00:10:02.800 --> 00:10:05.320
She was ahead of her time.

00:10:14.320 --> 00:10:16.520
One year after the movement was founded,

00:10:16.600 --> 00:10:19.480
Shulamit Aloni asked
the members of the feminist movement

00:10:19.560 --> 00:10:24.240
to place a representative in the third spot
on Ratz's list for the Knesset.

00:10:24.840 --> 00:10:27.720
Shulamit Aloni's party list
got three mandates

00:10:27.800 --> 00:10:30.160
and Dr. Marcia Freedman is in the Knesset.

00:10:30.240 --> 00:10:33.280
I would say it was very hard.

00:10:33.360 --> 00:10:38.680
That first year in the Knesset

00:10:38.760 --> 00:10:42.680
was one of the toughest years of my life.

00:10:42.960 --> 00:10:46.760
I was a total stranger there,

00:10:47.520 --> 00:10:49.120
even an odd bird,

00:10:49.200 --> 00:10:53.600
and I presented an unknown issue.

00:10:53.680 --> 00:10:55.520
What is feminism?

00:10:55.600 --> 00:10:57.920
What is women's status?

00:10:58.000 --> 00:11:01.240
Women have a status,
what is she talking about?

00:11:01.320 --> 00:11:05.480
I talked about issues
that no one had talked about,

00:11:05.560 --> 00:11:11.400
I talked about rape,
about domestic violence,

00:11:11.480 --> 00:11:14.600
I talked about breast cancer,

00:11:14.760 --> 00:11:17.000
I talked about prostitution.

00:11:17.080 --> 00:11:21.120
We must understand
that beating women...

00:11:26.400 --> 00:11:33.120
I'm amazed that you find this issue a joke.

00:11:34.000 --> 00:11:37.360
We must understand
that beating women

00:11:37.440 --> 00:11:41.360
is not restricted to poor neighborhoods
or development towns.

00:11:41.640 --> 00:11:45.800
The police must change its approach
to the battered woman.

00:11:46.040 --> 00:11:49.560
There is also an urgent need for legislation,

00:11:49.640 --> 00:11:52.360
to stiffen the violent husband's punishment.

00:11:52.480 --> 00:11:55.000
From the very start

00:11:55.080 --> 00:11:58.200
the Knesset members made a joke out of it.

00:11:58.280 --> 00:12:02.480
There was non-stop heckling. Non-stop.

00:12:02.680 --> 00:12:10.600
It was an issue that threatened all the men
in the Knesset assembly.

00:12:10.680 --> 00:12:12.560
Yes, the problem exists,

00:12:12.920 --> 00:12:15.800
but not on a scope
that requires we hear about it

00:12:15.880 --> 00:12:18.760
from the Knesset podium.

00:12:18.840 --> 00:12:21.280
"What about a husband complaining
that he is beaten by his wife?",

00:12:21.360 --> 00:12:24.080
asks MK Pesah Grupper facetiously.

00:12:24.440 --> 00:12:26.600
"You don't look like a man
who is beaten by his wife",

00:12:26.680 --> 00:12:27.880
says Shem Tov to Grupper,

00:12:27.960 --> 00:12:30.640
and Minister of Police Shlomo Hillel replies:

00:12:30.840 --> 00:12:33.360
You haven't seen his wife,
how do you know?

00:12:35.200 --> 00:12:38.040
The female Knesset members hardly reacted.

00:12:39.200 --> 00:12:41.720
They sat quietly

00:12:41.840 --> 00:12:45.000
during my entire speech.

00:12:45.080 --> 00:12:47.160
There were so few women in the Knesset

00:12:47.240 --> 00:12:49.720
and the women there were

00:12:49.800 --> 00:12:53.200
didn't want to underline their femininity

00:12:53.280 --> 00:12:57.160
because they considered it
as working against them.

00:12:57.240 --> 00:13:02.360
They wanted to be part of the mainstream
that focuses on the important issues.

00:13:02.440 --> 00:13:06.520
The important issues are collective
and don't pertain solely to women.

00:13:06.600 --> 00:13:08.840
Free abortion

00:13:08.920 --> 00:13:11.400
Women are not commodities

00:13:11.480 --> 00:13:16.120
They will decide what's best for them

00:13:16.280 --> 00:13:19.560
Our bodies are not public property!

00:13:19.640 --> 00:13:22.800
Abortion was one of the first issues

00:13:22.880 --> 00:13:24.920
that I brought to the Knesset assembly.

00:13:25.000 --> 00:13:29.040
I proposed a bill for free abortion,

00:13:29.120 --> 00:13:33.360
meaning, only the woman decides.

00:13:33.440 --> 00:13:36.520
Abortion was prohibited in Israel.

00:13:36.600 --> 00:13:41.200
One cannot be free
and equal in our society

00:13:41.280 --> 00:13:44.560
unless the decision is in our hands

00:13:44.640 --> 00:13:46.000
whether to give birth or not.

00:13:46.240 --> 00:13:49.400
They want to use me

00:13:49.480 --> 00:13:51.680
They want to screw me

00:13:51.760 --> 00:13:55.640
But my body is my own

00:13:55.720 --> 00:13:58.480
Forever my own

00:13:58.760 --> 00:14:00.880
It's well known,
all people who believe,

00:14:00.960 --> 00:14:03.960
Jews, Muslims, Christians,

00:14:04.040 --> 00:14:06.760
object to abortions.

00:14:06.840 --> 00:14:09.480
We'll continue to object to abortions,

00:14:09.640 --> 00:14:11.400
no matter what the reason.

00:14:11.480 --> 00:14:14.160
The fact that the worldview
of such a small group

00:14:14.240 --> 00:14:19.840
on all issues pertaining
to women's status

00:14:19.920 --> 00:14:23.880
is light years away from ours

00:14:24.160 --> 00:14:28.480
is detrimental to women, to society,

00:14:28.560 --> 00:14:32.400
to an elementary, liberal worldview.

00:14:32.480 --> 00:14:37.000
We are about to pass a law
that will disgrace our people

00:14:37.080 --> 00:14:42.200
and the number of souls
that we will lose will be a tragedy.

00:14:42.280 --> 00:14:45.600
I knew...
-You want them dead at an older age?

00:14:45.680 --> 00:14:48.000
I knew that this law

00:14:48.080 --> 00:14:51.480
merely raises an axe on our natural growth

00:14:51.560 --> 00:14:53.600
and the stable existence of our people.

00:14:53.680 --> 00:14:57.640
Woe unto the shame, the disgrace

00:14:58.000 --> 00:15:03.200
that Shulamit Aloni wants to procure
party capital from murdering children.

00:15:03.800 --> 00:15:05.120
You will shut your mouth,

00:15:05.200 --> 00:15:07.640
don't call me a murderer!
-Votes for children's blood!

00:15:07.720 --> 00:15:10.840
Who are you to call me a murderer?!
-Votes for children's blood! Shame on you.

00:15:10.920 --> 00:15:13.120
I don't know what feminism is,

00:15:13.200 --> 00:15:16.440
I consider myself a fighter
for human rights

00:15:16.680 --> 00:15:18.600
and I think that women are humans,

00:15:18.680 --> 00:15:21.960
the most humiliated and deprived humans

00:15:22.040 --> 00:15:24.000
and a fighter for human rights

00:15:24.200 --> 00:15:28.200
must work for and represent
the most humiliated and deprived.

00:15:28.280 --> 00:15:33.280
So I see myself as a representative
who fights for women's rights.

00:15:34.000 --> 00:15:38.720
Last year the government authorized a committee
to examine the status of women in Israel.

00:15:39.000 --> 00:15:43.320
In the letter of appointment,
committee chairwoman, MK Ora Namir,

00:15:43.440 --> 00:15:47.040
was asked to submit recommendations
on how to improve women's status

00:15:47.120 --> 00:15:48.760
and the extent of cooperation
between the sexes.

00:15:49.440 --> 00:15:52.840
An interim report on the committee's activities
was submitted this morning to the prime minister.

00:15:52.960 --> 00:15:54.600
The recommendations in the report

00:15:54.680 --> 00:15:58.000
focus on women's status
in the workplace and social security.

00:15:58.080 --> 00:16:01.480
There is a fundamental problem

00:16:01.560 --> 00:16:05.160
in terms of policy,
acknowledging their importance,

00:16:05.240 --> 00:16:09.400
considering this issue as important

00:16:09.480 --> 00:16:14.080
and not, "when we get around to it,

00:16:14.160 --> 00:16:16.320
"we will address women's matters."

00:16:16.400 --> 00:16:20.160
This report is the first
and most comprehensive document we have

00:16:20.240 --> 00:16:22.160
with data on the status of women in Israel.

00:16:22.240 --> 00:16:25.440
Most women, the young ones,
mainly mothers,

00:16:25.800 --> 00:16:27.000
didn't work outside the home.

00:16:27.080 --> 00:16:29.400
Most women didn't have a bank account.

00:16:29.640 --> 00:16:33.080
Most women didn't have
an academic education.

00:16:33.160 --> 00:16:35.400
There were large groups of women,

00:16:35.480 --> 00:16:38.600
mainly Sephardic and Arab women,

00:16:39.080 --> 00:16:41.520
whereby the problems were even worse.

00:16:41.960 --> 00:16:44.560
It seems that Israeli society lags way behind

00:16:44.640 --> 00:16:46.360
the Western countries

00:16:46.440 --> 00:16:48.200
in terms of equal rights for women,

00:16:48.280 --> 00:16:49.720
in terms of their physical protection,

00:16:49.800 --> 00:16:53.360
equal opportunities in employment,
in domestic issues, even in education.

00:16:53.480 --> 00:16:56.200
Every girl will tell you
that she aspires to be a nurse,

00:16:56.280 --> 00:16:57.560
every boy to be a doctor.

00:17:04.600 --> 00:17:06.160
We were very few women in the Knesset,

00:17:06.240 --> 00:17:08.640
11 or 12 in all,
if I'm not mistaken.

00:17:08.840 --> 00:17:10.600
Most of us, in '92,

00:17:10.680 --> 00:17:15.000
had previously been active
in the Israel Women's Network (IWN).

00:17:15.080 --> 00:17:19.720
We went through what I call,
this "rite of passage" in the IWN,

00:17:20.640 --> 00:17:22.000
a feminist rite of passage.

00:17:22.080 --> 00:17:25.160
We were Naomi Blumenthal
and I from the Likud,

00:17:25.240 --> 00:17:29.600
Yael Dayan from Ha'Avoda party,
she was new,

00:17:29.800 --> 00:17:31.520
she was in the IWN with us,

00:17:31.600 --> 00:17:35.800
from Meretz there were Naomi Chazan
and Anat Maor,

00:17:35.960 --> 00:17:38.440
Tamar Gozansky from Hadash

00:17:38.520 --> 00:17:42.360
and we all partnered

00:17:42.440 --> 00:17:47.080
to advance women's status.

00:17:47.440 --> 00:17:50.520
The new committee on women's status
convened for the first time.

00:17:50.600 --> 00:17:53.480
It has plenty of plans
and unique gumption.

00:17:53.560 --> 00:17:58.440
Our agenda was to create a committee
for the advancement of women's status.

00:17:58.520 --> 00:17:59.960
It's not easy.

00:18:00.760 --> 00:18:04.720
One could ask,
how did the men even let you?

00:18:04.800 --> 00:18:08.640
Gandhi demands shutting down the Committee
for the Advancement of Women's Status.

00:18:08.720 --> 00:18:11.760
The committee hardly costs money,
it's located in a shelter,

00:18:11.840 --> 00:18:14.240
one of the few committees
that gets things done.

00:18:14.320 --> 00:18:16.640
In effect he's saying,

00:18:16.720 --> 00:18:19.200
"I like women, but..."

00:18:19.320 --> 00:18:23.280
It's a love of women
like a master loves his slaves.

00:18:23.360 --> 00:18:24.880
I have a wife whom I love,

00:18:24.960 --> 00:18:27.160
I have three daughters,

00:18:27.400 --> 00:18:30.560
I have ten granddaughters
and a thousand female friends.

00:18:30.880 --> 00:18:33.120
So she won't call me a misogynist.

00:18:33.520 --> 00:18:35.080
It's a regular committee

00:18:35.320 --> 00:18:38.960
that convenes for discussions
almost every week

00:18:39.800 --> 00:18:41.680
and from which the important laws emerge.

00:18:42.280 --> 00:18:44.400
What was nice about it

00:18:44.480 --> 00:18:49.200
was that in the right,
until then, there was no feminism,

00:18:49.800 --> 00:18:54.080
they refused to acknowledge it
or handle it or focus on it.

00:18:54.160 --> 00:18:59.320
Not the late Sarah Doron
and not the late Geula Cohen.

00:18:59.520 --> 00:19:00.560
They wanted nothing to do with it.

00:19:00.640 --> 00:19:03.640
Naomi Blumenthal and myself

00:19:03.720 --> 00:19:06.080
thought that it's a very important issue

00:19:06.160 --> 00:19:10.160
and for the first time in the right,
it's happening,

00:19:10.480 --> 00:19:11.920
and not only is it happening,

00:19:13.040 --> 00:19:16.440
we're joining forces
with our female counterparts in the left.

00:19:16.520 --> 00:19:19.480
We'll each continue to fight
for our views and opinions,

00:19:19.560 --> 00:19:22.720
but when we can cooperate
for the good of women, we will.

00:19:22.800 --> 00:19:24.080
Women protestors

00:19:24.160 --> 00:19:26.720
stood outside the district court in Tel Aviv

00:19:26.800 --> 00:19:31.760
to protest the light punishments
that the courts sentence rapists to.

00:19:32.000 --> 00:19:34.320
The women also protested against
the Statute of Limitations

00:19:34.400 --> 00:19:35.640
on incest offenses.

00:19:35.720 --> 00:19:38.840
There's this norm
that is unacceptable

00:19:38.920 --> 00:19:42.320
whereby there is minimum penalty
when it comes to sex offenses.

00:19:42.400 --> 00:19:46.520
The emotional damage is terrible,

00:19:46.600 --> 00:19:48.280
it can't be measured.

00:19:48.560 --> 00:19:52.600
I remember a protest at Rabin Square,
the Kings of Israel Square at the time.

00:19:52.960 --> 00:19:54.760
There was a huge demonstration.

00:19:54.840 --> 00:19:57.760
A group of women were there
from the radical left.

00:19:57.880 --> 00:20:00.720
Yael Dayan from Ha'Avoda party was speaking
and I went on after her.

00:20:00.800 --> 00:20:04.320
And the women were screaming,
"Get her off!

00:20:04.520 --> 00:20:07.040
"She's for the Occupation,
she can't be a feminist"

00:20:07.120 --> 00:20:08.800
and they wouldn't let me talk.

00:20:09.280 --> 00:20:11.600
Yael gets on stage

00:20:11.680 --> 00:20:13.960
and really gives it to them.

00:20:14.040 --> 00:20:16.320
My views on politics,

00:20:17.120 --> 00:20:21.080
on the Israel-Palestine conflict

00:20:21.160 --> 00:20:22.680
are my own

00:20:22.760 --> 00:20:24.120
and I'm a feminist,

00:20:24.200 --> 00:20:28.400
my concern is for the Israeli public

00:20:28.480 --> 00:20:31.000
and the women who live
in the State of Israel.

00:20:31.240 --> 00:20:35.960
The Palestinian women, etc...

00:20:36.040 --> 00:20:38.240
you want to take care of them, that's fine.

00:20:38.320 --> 00:20:40.960
I won't get involved in that,
I won't argue about that,

00:20:41.040 --> 00:20:42.560
I won't get into it,

00:20:42.640 --> 00:20:45.640
because if I do
we will never be able to cooperate

00:20:45.720 --> 00:20:50.640
and advance the issues
that we are advancing together.

00:20:50.840 --> 00:20:52.480
In terms of the committee's work,

00:20:52.560 --> 00:20:57.040
since the government term was shortened,
there are several bills

00:20:57.200 --> 00:21:00.480
we're trying to pass
in the first reading at least.

00:21:00.560 --> 00:21:03.280
They are bills that are important to us all

00:21:03.360 --> 00:21:07.000
and they include surrogacy, equal pay,

00:21:07.080 --> 00:21:09.880
not to mention violence towards women.

00:21:09.960 --> 00:21:12.480
I don't think that

00:21:12.560 --> 00:21:18.560
a four year Knesset term
ever produced such a major law.

00:21:18.640 --> 00:21:25.560
During that time,
between 1992 and 2003,

00:21:25.640 --> 00:21:32.320
there was a mini-revolution
in gender legislation.

00:21:32.400 --> 00:21:37.320
We made a change in leaps and bounds

00:21:37.960 --> 00:21:41.080
and this group of female Knesset members

00:21:41.160 --> 00:21:46.800
changed the judicial basis
of women's status in Israel.

00:21:47.240 --> 00:21:54.120
If not for the leadership
of independent, strong, committed women,

00:21:54.640 --> 00:21:56.120
it wouldn't have happened.

00:21:56.200 --> 00:22:01.720
There's a rise in violence,
including grievous sex crimes against women

00:22:01.880 --> 00:22:05.320
by thousands of cases.
Thousands of cases.

00:22:05.400 --> 00:22:07.160
And the roots are in education,

00:22:07.360 --> 00:22:10.320
in inegalitarian legislation,

00:22:10.400 --> 00:22:15.720
because women in Israel are not equal
to men in Israel in any area.

00:22:15.800 --> 00:22:20.960
As long as women are the property of men
by Jewish law

00:22:21.040 --> 00:22:23.840
and civil law in the State of Israel,

00:22:23.920 --> 00:22:27.520
as property they are inferior,
they are someone's property

00:22:27.720 --> 00:22:32.360
and perhaps there is something here
that must be uprooted

00:22:32.440 --> 00:22:34.880
and that something is called justice.

00:22:35.440 --> 00:22:39.000
And that justice is called equality
and equality doesn't exist here

00:22:39.080 --> 00:22:41.160
and as long as there's no equality

00:22:41.400 --> 00:22:44.600
between a man and woman in Israeli society,

00:22:44.680 --> 00:22:45.840
there will be violence.

00:22:45.920 --> 00:22:48.000
Yes, you have the right not to be touched,

00:22:48.680 --> 00:22:53.080
but you're encouraging a permissive atmosphere

00:22:53.160 --> 00:22:57.320
that causes men and others to be confused.

00:22:57.560 --> 00:22:59.160
Watch yourselves.

00:22:59.600 --> 00:23:01.280
Watch yourselves.

00:23:01.480 --> 00:23:05.080
Be less permissive, less provocative.

00:23:05.320 --> 00:23:07.600
Maybe that way
many incidents will be prevented.

00:23:08.640 --> 00:23:11.360
A woman may have worn
a slightly shorter skirt,

00:23:11.480 --> 00:23:13.040
maybe she stimulated him,

00:23:13.120 --> 00:23:16.720
maybe she said something out of place,

00:23:16.800 --> 00:23:19.080
maybe she dressed in a provocative way,

00:23:19.160 --> 00:23:20.760
maybe she was too pretty,

00:23:20.840 --> 00:23:23.640
all these things must be erased
from the lexicon,

00:23:23.720 --> 00:23:26.760
because only one person
can decide over their body

00:23:26.840 --> 00:23:28.000
and that's the person him or herself.

00:23:28.080 --> 00:23:29.880
The women again in the Knesset assembly,

00:23:29.960 --> 00:23:32.560
this time a discussion on the penalty
for violence against women.

00:23:32.840 --> 00:23:35.360
The conclusion: The current penalties
are no deterrence

00:23:35.440 --> 00:23:39.560
and the Knesset must pass laws
to protect the female population.

00:23:42.880 --> 00:23:47.520
31 women were murdered in Israel
by their husbands from the beginning of the year.

00:23:47.600 --> 00:23:52.000
One of every four women falls victim
to sexual assault in their lifetime.

00:23:52.560 --> 00:23:54.680
Look us in the eye,

00:23:55.320 --> 00:23:56.760
see us,

00:23:57.400 --> 00:24:01.600
murdered, raped, beaten.

00:24:02.080 --> 00:24:04.120
See the reality,

00:24:04.240 --> 00:24:06.200
then judge.

00:24:06.280 --> 00:24:11.720
No doubt the law against violence
towards women, sexual harassment,

00:24:11.800 --> 00:24:14.120
it started back then.

00:24:14.200 --> 00:24:15.720
There was no...

00:24:15.840 --> 00:24:17.680
mention before that.

00:24:17.760 --> 00:24:21.200
We promoted it all.

00:24:21.840 --> 00:24:24.120
This was a group of women

00:24:24.200 --> 00:24:29.520
who were deeply committed
to gender equality.

00:24:29.880 --> 00:24:35.360
These women were educated,
Ashkenazi, upper middle class,

00:24:35.440 --> 00:24:39.040
they weren't like the feminist activists

00:24:39.120 --> 00:24:42.760
who focused on very different issues
in those years.

00:24:42.840 --> 00:24:46.520
While the women's lobby established
the forum of the female Knesset members,

00:24:46.600 --> 00:24:51.840
Sephardic feminists were teaching
Sephardic mothers to read and write.

00:24:51.920 --> 00:24:53.640
That was the gap in those years.

00:24:53.720 --> 00:24:55.760
There are basic differences between you,

00:24:55.840 --> 00:25:00.320
between what the Ashkenazi women
call feminism... -True, true.

00:25:00.400 --> 00:25:01.720
And what you...
-True.

00:25:01.800 --> 00:25:05.960
Feminism is identifying
with the female workers in Ofakim.

00:25:06.040 --> 00:25:10.600
Feminism is appealing to the Supreme Court
for a single Ethiopian mother

00:25:10.680 --> 00:25:14.640
fighting that her child
not be put in a special education class.

00:25:14.920 --> 00:25:17.080
That's feminism.

00:25:17.160 --> 00:25:21.920
Sephardi women had no way
of getting into formal politics.

00:25:22.000 --> 00:25:23.680
They weren't party members,

00:25:23.760 --> 00:25:26.320
they had no family ties, no capital.

00:25:26.400 --> 00:25:28.120
This path was blocked to them.

00:25:39.160 --> 00:25:43.720
What makes Israel unique
compared to other countries

00:25:44.040 --> 00:25:46.920
are two major obstacles.

00:25:47.000 --> 00:25:50.680
The first is the monopoly of the Rabbinate

00:25:50.760 --> 00:25:52.040
over domestic laws.

00:25:52.120 --> 00:25:55.320
One morning I woke up and said,

00:25:55.400 --> 00:26:00.360
you won't be able
to remove this obstacle in the Knesset.

00:26:00.880 --> 00:26:04.960
The other is the obstacle of the IDF.

00:26:05.600 --> 00:26:08.440
The Supreme Court will hear a petition
by soldier Alice Miller

00:26:08.520 --> 00:26:11.840
who wants to be included
in the IAF tryouts.

00:26:12.000 --> 00:26:13.640
The State's Attorney responded
on behalf of the air force

00:26:13.720 --> 00:26:17.240
that women's reserve service
doesn't comply with the air force's needs.

00:26:17.400 --> 00:26:20.000
I wrote a one sentence law,

00:26:20.080 --> 00:26:25.440
that "the army will place
candidates for defense service

00:26:25.600 --> 00:26:29.520
"based on their skills,
not their gender."

00:26:29.600 --> 00:26:32.400
It sounds more like an anecdote.

00:26:32.480 --> 00:26:36.280
No. -Do you see a woman pilot
on an assault mission in Damascus?

00:26:36.360 --> 00:26:39.800
Do you see women lying in ambush
in Lebanon? -Yes.

00:26:39.880 --> 00:26:41.640
Does that make sense to you?
-Yes. Yes.

00:26:41.720 --> 00:26:44.680
Not only does it make sense,
the time has come.

00:26:44.760 --> 00:26:46.640
The Knesset passed the law
for women's service

00:26:46.720 --> 00:26:50.960
and the IDF is preparing to place women
in combat roles.

00:26:58.200 --> 00:27:00.680
To this day, this law

00:27:00.760 --> 00:27:02.880
makes me ponder.

00:27:02.960 --> 00:27:07.480
I don't think that militarism

00:27:07.560 --> 00:27:09.720
should be glorified.

00:27:09.800 --> 00:27:16.880
I got a lot of flack from
my more radical feminist sisters.

00:27:16.960 --> 00:27:19.400
"Why get involved in that?

00:27:20.360 --> 00:27:21.800
"Why are you doing that?"

00:27:22.240 --> 00:27:26.920
I think that our goal must be
to diminish the army

00:27:27.040 --> 00:27:28.560
as much as possible,

00:27:28.640 --> 00:27:32.080
not only to diminish
the money spent on weapons,

00:27:32.160 --> 00:27:36.200
rather adopt this view
that we are headed towards peace.

00:27:36.600 --> 00:27:42.720
I don't see women's equality
occurring in the military service.

00:27:42.920 --> 00:27:45.040
I'm a white dove,

00:27:45.120 --> 00:27:50.720
but the basis of feminism is equality

00:27:51.560 --> 00:27:56.560
and if we let
institutionalized inequality continue,

00:27:56.720 --> 00:27:57.880
that's a problem.

00:27:58.200 --> 00:28:01.960
You want a discussion
on militarization and feminism?

00:28:02.200 --> 00:28:03.320
Bring it on.

00:28:03.400 --> 00:28:05.640
Don't get me wrong,

00:28:06.040 --> 00:28:12.000
I'm against equality in the army.

00:28:12.160 --> 00:28:14.800
My aim is not that

00:28:14.880 --> 00:28:20.240
Israeli women compete
against men for this job,

00:28:20.320 --> 00:28:24.480
being the executive arm
of the Occupation policy

00:28:24.560 --> 00:28:26.440
and all that entails.

00:28:26.600 --> 00:28:29.560
On to the next topic on the agenda,

00:28:30.200 --> 00:28:34.240
a bill proposal for the prevention
of sexual harassment, 1998,

00:28:34.320 --> 00:28:35.880
for second and third reading.

00:28:35.960 --> 00:28:38.560
The bill will be presented by the chairwoman
of the committee of women's status,

00:28:38.640 --> 00:28:40.840
Knesset Member Yael Dayan.

00:28:40.920 --> 00:28:43.520
This is the first time
that a law defines

00:28:43.640 --> 00:28:48.440
what categories can be considered
sexual harassment.

00:28:48.680 --> 00:28:52.000
It's not a compliment,
it's not a romantic gesture,

00:28:52.080 --> 00:28:54.320
and it's pretty disgusting.

00:28:54.400 --> 00:28:56.640
Women are fired, suspended,

00:28:56.720 --> 00:28:59.240
men abuse, men exploit,

00:28:59.320 --> 00:29:01.280
men use blackmail.

00:29:01.360 --> 00:29:03.960
The most complaints,
and this must be said,

00:29:04.040 --> 00:29:05.920
are in the workplace,

00:29:06.000 --> 00:29:10.440
the harshest complaints
are where there is authority or dependence.

00:29:11.160 --> 00:29:13.840
When it was up for the first reading,

00:29:14.240 --> 00:29:19.240
many Knesset members were flabbergasted,

00:29:19.320 --> 00:29:23.600
they thought it's farfetched,
they waged war against it.

00:29:23.680 --> 00:29:28.040
The person who bore the flag
against the bill was Rehavam Ze'evi.

00:29:28.120 --> 00:29:31.560
I think the bill proposer or proposers

00:29:31.640 --> 00:29:37.080
highly exaggerated sections
and sub-sections

00:29:37.160 --> 00:29:39.960
in order to make this law demonic.

00:29:40.320 --> 00:29:42.160
And I ask you proposers,

00:29:42.240 --> 00:29:46.880
do you want to create divisions,
stop the wooing?

00:29:46.960 --> 00:29:50.600
No more giving compliments?
No more inviting?

00:29:50.680 --> 00:29:52.680
No more lusting?

00:29:52.960 --> 00:29:54.800
We're all familiar with the classic song

00:29:54.880 --> 00:29:58.760
from a decade or two ago
on the hit parade -

00:29:58.840 --> 00:30:01.720
"When you say no, what do you mean?"

00:30:02.640 --> 00:30:04.080
Who didn't hum that?

00:30:04.200 --> 00:30:07.040
When you say no, what do you mean?

00:30:07.600 --> 00:30:10.920
I think it was written by Haim Hefer

00:30:11.440 --> 00:30:14.560
and it's our standard public norm.

00:30:15.160 --> 00:30:17.160
MK Ze'evi...

00:30:19.560 --> 00:30:23.240
When you say no, what do you mean?

00:30:24.440 --> 00:30:27.800
When I say no,
when women say no,

00:30:27.880 --> 00:30:30.680
they mean no.

00:30:30.760 --> 00:30:32.640
My experience is different.

00:30:32.720 --> 00:30:34.520
We know that, Sir.

00:30:34.720 --> 00:30:37.080
The bill passed the first reading.

00:30:37.160 --> 00:30:39.400
Towards the second and third readings

00:30:39.920 --> 00:30:43.920
Yael Dayan made a brilliant move,

00:30:44.120 --> 00:30:48.040
she decided the bill would be voted on
on International Women's Day,

00:30:48.120 --> 00:30:50.080
March 8,

00:30:50.360 --> 00:30:53.080
to make a special event of it,

00:30:53.160 --> 00:30:55.880
it was broadcast the world over,

00:30:55.960 --> 00:30:59.600
so that anyone who voted against
would know they are being watched.

00:30:59.680 --> 00:31:06.000
I can reassure you,
citizens of the State of Israel,

00:31:06.080 --> 00:31:09.120
this law won't prevent us

00:31:09.200 --> 00:31:12.440
from saying, "Hey doll, let's have a drink."

00:31:12.720 --> 00:31:15.520
But we did a good thing in the Knesset,

00:31:15.600 --> 00:31:19.920
determining norms
that we deem binding.

00:31:20.000 --> 00:31:23.240
Has feminism succeeded too much?
Ask the men.

00:31:23.480 --> 00:31:27.360
Some of them are convinced
that women are abusing their strong lobby

00:31:27.440 --> 00:31:29.080
to file false complaints against them,

00:31:29.160 --> 00:31:31.480
therefore they called upon
the male Knesset members:

00:31:31.560 --> 00:31:34.320
"Be men, put your pants back on."

00:31:34.400 --> 00:31:36.440
I want the male Knesset members
to wear the pants,

00:31:36.520 --> 00:31:39.560
show the women the statistics

00:31:39.640 --> 00:31:41.680
that it's all lies and fabrications.

00:31:41.800 --> 00:31:45.120
It took time for people to internalize
the law for the Prevention of Sexual Harassment.

00:31:45.200 --> 00:31:48.200
Some haven't internalized it
to this day, but it took time.

00:31:48.920 --> 00:31:51.240
"Why are you ruining the rules of the game?"

00:31:51.320 --> 00:31:54.280
"You're changing the rules
and not telling us."

00:31:54.360 --> 00:31:56.000
That was the essence.

00:31:56.200 --> 00:31:58.040
"And why now?

00:31:58.120 --> 00:31:59.600
"Why are you complaining now?"

00:31:59.680 --> 00:32:00.960
In other words,

00:32:01.040 --> 00:32:03.240
"why are you messing with
the existing order?

00:32:03.320 --> 00:32:05.760
"You said nothing until now,
shut up and be quiet.

00:32:05.840 --> 00:32:08.400
"Now you're bringing up
something that occurred 20 years ago?"

00:32:19.920 --> 00:32:22.800
As long as women
are the minority in politics,

00:32:22.880 --> 00:32:25.400
they're still dealing

00:32:25.480 --> 00:32:28.280
with a very masculine political establishment,

00:32:28.360 --> 00:32:29.760
very genderized.

00:32:29.840 --> 00:32:33.800
The codes, the conduct,

00:32:33.880 --> 00:32:36.440
the rules of the game

00:32:36.520 --> 00:32:39.480
are very masculine and patriarchal.

00:32:39.560 --> 00:32:44.840
The fact that 78% of Arab women
are not employed

00:32:44.920 --> 00:32:47.600
is not fate, it's a policy.

00:32:47.680 --> 00:32:52.280
Being a Palestinian woman
and a feminist to boot?

00:32:52.360 --> 00:32:54.520
I think it causes

00:32:55.400 --> 00:32:58.680
much alienation
and a sense of incongruity.

00:32:58.760 --> 00:33:01.360
Then you have all the stereotypes

00:33:01.440 --> 00:33:06.680
as to how a Palestinian woman
must conduct herself,

00:33:07.360 --> 00:33:09.280
even how she must dress.

00:33:09.360 --> 00:33:12.320
Can one approach her or not?

00:33:12.840 --> 00:33:16.840
Can one do business with her?

00:33:16.960 --> 00:33:22.560
Is she treated like a politician

00:33:22.640 --> 00:33:26.720
or as an appendage
to the politicians in her party?

00:33:26.920 --> 00:33:29.560
Did you know the murdered women?

00:33:29.640 --> 00:33:32.760
Were complaints filed in the past?

00:33:32.840 --> 00:33:36.440
I want to lead an agenda in the committee

00:33:36.520 --> 00:33:38.760
that I chair

00:33:39.320 --> 00:33:42.400
and some people object,
some people don't like that,

00:33:42.480 --> 00:33:46.200
so they go to my male colleagues

00:33:46.680 --> 00:33:49.200
and talk to me through them.

00:33:49.800 --> 00:33:54.440
This is an approach
that doesn't see us

00:33:54.520 --> 00:33:57.040
as individuals in our own right.

00:34:01.200 --> 00:34:04.000
I was very young, a woman

00:34:04.080 --> 00:34:05.960
and a member of the Ethiopian community.

00:34:06.040 --> 00:34:10.080
People go to my advisor and ask,
"where's your Nigger?"

00:34:10.880 --> 00:34:12.560
I'm a Knesset member!

00:34:12.680 --> 00:34:14.280
That's what you choose to say?

00:34:14.360 --> 00:34:17.000
"Where's your Nigger?"

00:34:17.520 --> 00:34:20.680
I would often go to my office,

00:34:20.760 --> 00:34:24.280
my fortress with my staff
and shed a tear.

00:34:24.760 --> 00:34:26.360
Or call my mother.

00:34:30.040 --> 00:34:31.640
As for...
-What about the query?

00:34:31.720 --> 00:34:34.880
The division.
-You got the query in advance, Naftali.

00:34:34.960 --> 00:34:38.040
Stop shrieking, let me finish.
-What's with that word?

00:34:38.120 --> 00:34:40.400
Why do you say she's shrieking?
-As for...

00:34:40.480 --> 00:34:42.840
She asked you a question,
that was the essence of the query.

00:34:42.920 --> 00:34:45.560
As for...
-Don't talk to us like that.

00:34:45.640 --> 00:34:47.320
But I didn't get it.
-I asked...

00:34:47.400 --> 00:34:49.520
Maybe you don't know,
maybe you're young.

00:34:49.880 --> 00:34:52.400
Oh, now I'm young.
-She's young.

00:34:52.480 --> 00:34:54.160
She's young and she shrieks.

00:34:54.240 --> 00:34:56.520
I had many thoughts
that stemmed from this feeling

00:34:56.800 --> 00:34:58.240
that it's all good,

00:34:58.720 --> 00:35:01.440
that men and women are equal,

00:35:01.520 --> 00:35:03.560
that a young woman like me
can do what she wants

00:35:03.640 --> 00:35:05.880
just like a man
and no one will look at her differently.

00:35:06.480 --> 00:35:08.640
The whole time,
during the primaries and after,

00:35:08.720 --> 00:35:12.680
I didn't think I was treated differently.

00:35:12.760 --> 00:35:17.040
I just developed this filter

00:35:17.120 --> 00:35:22.720
towards any display of chauvinism towards me

00:35:23.200 --> 00:35:27.400
and I sweep it out, I don't...

00:35:27.480 --> 00:35:29.080
it's totally off my radar.

00:35:29.160 --> 00:35:31.840
In retrospect I realize
that I had to be in denial

00:35:31.920 --> 00:35:33.640
not to see these things,

00:35:33.800 --> 00:35:37.120
because once I became aware,
it was very hard not to see them.

00:35:37.480 --> 00:35:39.880
"You're a kid,
you have no idea what we do here.

00:35:39.960 --> 00:35:41.280
"Grow up, you'll understand,"

00:35:41.760 --> 00:35:43.680
waving their hands as if in dismissal.

00:35:44.480 --> 00:35:46.160
Please leave.
-What?!

00:35:46.240 --> 00:35:48.360
You leave.
-Please leave.

00:35:48.440 --> 00:35:50.560
Remove the entire opposition.

00:35:50.640 --> 00:35:52.880
Take her out.

00:35:52.960 --> 00:35:55.760
Calm down and come back in five minutes.

00:35:55.840 --> 00:35:59.320
It took me six months in the Knesset
to realize that I'm treated differently

00:35:59.400 --> 00:36:01.680
based on my gender,

00:36:02.040 --> 00:36:03.760
not only the things I say.

00:36:03.840 --> 00:36:06.440
I had an advantage,
I wasn't young.

00:36:06.920 --> 00:36:10.280
I already had an established career
and I was well known,

00:36:10.600 --> 00:36:12.480
I had a public status.

00:36:12.560 --> 00:36:15.440
So I wasn't trampled on,

00:36:16.040 --> 00:36:22.120
I wasn't called a little girl
or insults of that kind.

00:36:22.200 --> 00:36:25.320
Yet being a strong woman

00:36:25.400 --> 00:36:29.280
entails a different form of antagonism

00:36:29.360 --> 00:36:31.960
that is often accompanied
by hate and hostility.

00:36:32.160 --> 00:36:34.760
Miri, don't make me say
how you climbed up the ladder.

00:36:35.280 --> 00:36:36.760
You don't want that.

00:36:36.840 --> 00:36:39.120
You and your leaks.
-Don't make me, Miri.

00:36:39.720 --> 00:36:42.160
You know I know.
-Let him speak,

00:36:42.240 --> 00:36:45.320
we won't disturb him.
-I know how you advanced, Miri.

00:36:53.560 --> 00:36:57.120
If the incident with Stern
had happened a few years ago

00:36:57.240 --> 00:36:59.160
I would have been intimidated,

00:36:59.400 --> 00:37:02.680
I would have withdrawn, been embarrassed

00:37:02.800 --> 00:37:05.800
and in that helplessness
I would have done nothing.

00:37:05.880 --> 00:37:10.560
Stern never would have dared say
to a brigadier in the army,

00:37:10.720 --> 00:37:12.320
"we know how you got promoted."

00:37:12.680 --> 00:37:15.280
The nerve of that man,

00:37:15.600 --> 00:37:16.920
saying that to a woman,

00:37:17.000 --> 00:37:19.760
that's what women are so afraid of.

00:37:19.840 --> 00:37:22.640
No one, not Stern,
not anyone else,

00:37:22.800 --> 00:37:26.160
can try and make me feel small

00:37:26.240 --> 00:37:29.560
or score a political goal

00:37:29.640 --> 00:37:34.160
by humiliating me
or any other woman.

00:37:34.240 --> 00:37:35.200
It's unheard of,

00:37:35.280 --> 00:37:39.960
with all the advancement, legislation,
understanding and evolution

00:37:40.040 --> 00:37:42.240
female Knesset members
are still talked to that way.

00:37:50.840 --> 00:37:54.680
A regular woman enjoys the status
of the only woman,

00:37:54.880 --> 00:37:59.760
a feminist woman uses her status
to open the door

00:37:59.840 --> 00:38:02.520
to more women

00:38:03.160 --> 00:38:05.840
and I consider myself a feminist.

00:38:05.920 --> 00:38:08.680
My fellow women are fighters

00:38:08.760 --> 00:38:09.880
for women's equality as well,

00:38:09.960 --> 00:38:11.360
each in her own way.

00:38:11.440 --> 00:38:14.840
This is a Knesset blessed not only with women
but with feminist women

00:38:15.480 --> 00:38:17.920
who won't hesitate to say it out loud.

00:38:18.120 --> 00:38:19.800
Of course it's personal,

00:38:20.000 --> 00:38:22.000
you grow up as a girl, a woman,

00:38:22.080 --> 00:38:25.360
you experience the inequality all the time.

00:38:25.440 --> 00:38:27.840
How can it be?

00:38:27.920 --> 00:38:29.280
How can it be?

00:38:29.360 --> 00:38:32.760
You must break that wall.

00:38:33.280 --> 00:38:34.640
It's hard to believe

00:38:34.720 --> 00:38:39.680
but it takes a law by the Knesset
to allow saleswomen and cashiers

00:38:39.760 --> 00:38:41.640
to do their jobs sitting down.

00:38:41.720 --> 00:38:43.360
We don't even blink,

00:38:43.440 --> 00:38:45.440
we think it's the way of the world,

00:38:45.520 --> 00:38:48.000
women were born to serve us standing up.

00:38:48.280 --> 00:38:51.560
There was spectacular female solidarity

00:38:51.640 --> 00:38:56.080
and there were laws
that only the female Knesset members,

00:38:56.160 --> 00:38:59.720
from all the parties, could pass.

00:39:01.440 --> 00:39:06.120
History in the Knesset.
The plenum approved by second and third reading

00:39:06.200 --> 00:39:08.560
the law that prohibits
the consumption of prostitution.

00:39:08.640 --> 00:39:10.640
Prostitution is an offense,

00:39:10.720 --> 00:39:12.360
consuming prostitution is an offense.

00:39:12.440 --> 00:39:15.240
My feminism is not based on

00:39:16.120 --> 00:39:18.080
everything you can do
I can do better,

00:39:18.160 --> 00:39:21.960
it's not based on a quest for equality,

00:39:22.040 --> 00:39:24.240
it's based on my belief

00:39:24.440 --> 00:39:27.200
that God created the world correctly.

00:39:27.320 --> 00:39:31.960
And since the world was created whole
with man and woman,

00:39:32.040 --> 00:39:35.160
no decision making table will be complete

00:39:35.280 --> 00:39:37.960
without both men and women there.

00:39:38.200 --> 00:39:40.480
The time is now.

00:39:40.560 --> 00:39:44.760
When it comes to cooperation,
it's a woman's world.

00:39:44.840 --> 00:39:50.480
We can voice our disagreements,

00:39:50.760 --> 00:39:54.680
conduct an ideological struggle thereon,

00:39:54.760 --> 00:39:57.960
but on issues where we do agree,

00:39:58.600 --> 00:40:01.360
we join hands and work full force.

00:40:01.440 --> 00:40:05.520
We must step in
when men turn women into an object.

00:40:05.600 --> 00:40:08.560
I viewed all my struggles as one,

00:40:08.640 --> 00:40:11.600
for equality, human rights, freedom,

00:40:11.680 --> 00:40:14.440
justice, solidarity,
they're all entwined

00:40:14.720 --> 00:40:17.920
and I legislated many laws
in many areas,

00:40:18.000 --> 00:40:23.320
but I knew that when it comes
to gender equality,

00:40:23.440 --> 00:40:25.200
to feminist issues
that were important to me,

00:40:25.280 --> 00:40:27.720
if I wouldn't tackle them, who would?

00:40:27.800 --> 00:40:29.800
I took everything so much to heart,
I didn't sleep at night,

00:40:29.880 --> 00:40:31.600
I would drive
from Jerusalem to Petach Tikva

00:40:31.680 --> 00:40:34.360
and curse out all those Knesset members

00:40:34.440 --> 00:40:38.000
for not voting, for having explained
to them and having them commit

00:40:38.080 --> 00:40:39.600
just to violate their commitment.

00:40:39.680 --> 00:40:41.720
And at one point I realized...

00:40:41.800 --> 00:40:44.360
I'm not giving up.
I don't have that prerogative.

00:40:44.440 --> 00:40:45.400
So I'll do it again,

00:40:45.480 --> 00:40:48.520
I kept proposing the bill,
I kept fighting for it.

00:40:48.600 --> 00:40:50.320
In some cases I had major wins,

00:40:50.400 --> 00:40:51.680
some less.

00:40:58.720 --> 00:41:01.240
Female leadership in the Knesset
isn't a monolith.

00:41:01.320 --> 00:41:02.280
They're not...

00:41:02.360 --> 00:41:05.920
you can't refer to all the women
in the Knesset as an interest group

00:41:06.240 --> 00:41:08.880
or as a group that works together

00:41:08.960 --> 00:41:10.880
because they have different agendas,

00:41:11.280 --> 00:41:14.920
they don't all have feminist worldviews,

00:41:15.120 --> 00:41:20.160
so on broader issues
it's harder to promote change.

00:41:20.360 --> 00:41:23.000
Not only are women
a minority in the Knesset,

00:41:23.080 --> 00:41:30.280
women with feminist priorities
or feminist views and ideas

00:41:30.680 --> 00:41:32.520
are still a minority in the Knesset.

00:41:32.960 --> 00:41:35.960
Saying that all women are committed
to advancing women's interests

00:41:36.040 --> 00:41:37.000
is an overstatement.

00:41:37.080 --> 00:41:38.680
Sadly I met women in the Knesset

00:41:38.760 --> 00:41:41.960
who couldn't care less
about women's issues.

00:41:42.040 --> 00:41:44.840
Others didn't want to be viewed as...

00:41:44.920 --> 00:41:47.120
"I'm no feminist. Me?

00:41:47.200 --> 00:41:49.040
"No way. I'm not a feminist."

00:41:49.440 --> 00:41:52.720
They didn't want to be considered
as being in female niches

00:41:52.800 --> 00:41:55.520
and accused of looking out
for women's causes.

00:41:55.600 --> 00:41:56.880
I met women like that too.

00:41:57.600 --> 00:41:59.520
The bill proposal

00:42:00.080 --> 00:42:02.960
enables victims of sexual assault

00:42:03.040 --> 00:42:07.000
to extend the time in which
a forensic sample will be taken from them.

00:42:07.080 --> 00:42:10.480
I assume you know that these women

00:42:10.560 --> 00:42:15.320
are taken to the designated room
in the hospital,

00:42:15.400 --> 00:42:17.960
forensic evidence is collected
in the form of a rape kit

00:42:18.640 --> 00:42:22.040
and if the woman chooses
not to file a police complaint

00:42:22.120 --> 00:42:23.640
and she takes her time,

00:42:23.720 --> 00:42:25.480
the rape kit is destroyed.

00:42:25.560 --> 00:42:28.040
This law compels the hospitals,

00:42:28.160 --> 00:42:29.720
the police,

00:42:29.800 --> 00:42:32.240
everyone involved in the investigation

00:42:32.360 --> 00:42:38.080
to preserve the samples taken from
the victims of rape or sexual assault

00:42:38.160 --> 00:42:39.600
when they came in to file the complaint.

00:42:39.680 --> 00:42:44.160
I call on everyone
to support this bill proposal

00:42:44.600 --> 00:42:49.000
to do justice with the men
and women victims of sexual assault.

00:42:49.080 --> 00:42:52.520
They don't warrant that coalition
and opposition considerations

00:42:52.600 --> 00:42:56.200
have an impact
on the vote for this important law.

00:42:56.280 --> 00:43:00.560
On to a roll call vote
at the government's request.

00:43:00.640 --> 00:43:03.040
Merav Ben Ari.
-Yes. -For.

00:43:05.480 --> 00:43:08.480
Elina Bardach-Yalov.
-For. -For.

00:43:09.840 --> 00:43:12.320
Keren Barak.
-Against. -Against.

00:43:12.400 --> 00:43:15.280
Against, Keren?! How?

00:43:15.440 --> 00:43:17.320
It's the center of your life!

00:43:17.600 --> 00:43:18.640
Excuse me.

00:43:18.720 --> 00:43:21.360
It's her life!
-MK Ben Ari, calm down.

00:43:21.440 --> 00:43:24.920
MK Yoav Kisch.
MK Yoav Kisch.

00:43:25.000 --> 00:43:26.920
Couldn't you deduct her?

00:43:27.000 --> 00:43:28.440
It's her life.

00:43:28.520 --> 00:43:31.440
She's been fighting for it all her life.
-MK Ben Ari, please sit down.

00:43:31.520 --> 00:43:32.920
Shame on you!

00:43:33.240 --> 00:43:37.240
She's been fighting for this!
-Knesset Member Merav.

00:43:37.840 --> 00:43:40.040
The nerve.
-Merav.

00:43:40.200 --> 00:43:41.320
What is it?

00:43:41.400 --> 00:43:43.560
Gila Gamliel.
-Against. -Against.

00:43:44.640 --> 00:43:46.400
May Golan.

00:43:46.520 --> 00:43:47.680
Against.

00:43:48.280 --> 00:43:51.240
Galit Distel-Atbaryan.
-Against. -Against.

00:43:51.320 --> 00:43:56.760
That day, women in the Knesset didn't hesitate

00:43:56.840 --> 00:43:59.800
and didn't apply their discretion

00:43:59.880 --> 00:44:01.760
or conscience

00:44:01.960 --> 00:44:04.480
and what can I say?

00:44:04.560 --> 00:44:08.480
They acted like the last
of the weak women

00:44:08.800 --> 00:44:13.120
and blindly obeyed the coalition discipline.

00:44:13.320 --> 00:44:15.320
Orly Levy-Abekasis.

00:44:16.440 --> 00:44:18.400
Against? Against.

00:44:19.560 --> 00:44:22.600
Shame! Shame! Shame!

00:44:24.200 --> 00:44:25.400
Shame on you!

00:44:25.480 --> 00:44:27.280
Shame on your conduct!

00:44:27.520 --> 00:44:28.800
Miri Regev.

00:44:29.400 --> 00:44:30.520
Against.

00:44:30.680 --> 00:44:33.520
Ultimately, forget men and women,

00:44:33.600 --> 00:44:35.040
you want to be equal?

00:44:35.120 --> 00:44:37.160
Learn the rules of the game, my dear.

00:44:37.440 --> 00:44:38.960
Don't whine.

00:44:39.120 --> 00:44:40.840
There are rules,

00:44:40.920 --> 00:44:43.120
study them, know them

00:44:43.200 --> 00:44:45.040
and then try to make an impact.

00:44:45.320 --> 00:44:47.520
Whining just isn't done.

00:44:47.600 --> 00:44:49.960
In politics there is party discipline.

00:44:50.080 --> 00:44:54.040
It obligates us to go against our will at times.

00:44:54.160 --> 00:44:56.080
It's hard.
I look at myself

00:44:56.160 --> 00:44:58.040
and wonder how I'd feel

00:44:58.120 --> 00:45:00.560
if I was in that situation

00:45:00.640 --> 00:45:04.520
towards a Knesset member
who votes against me for the bill

00:45:04.880 --> 00:45:06.560
and it's not easy, it's tough.

00:45:11.680 --> 00:45:16.800
When female Knesset members must decide
what the priorities are,

00:45:16.920 --> 00:45:19.800
they will always be the party agenda,

00:45:19.880 --> 00:45:21.440
the party priorities

00:45:21.520 --> 00:45:25.800
and in 100% of the cases it won't comply
with the interests of women.

00:45:25.880 --> 00:45:28.600
This is a reflection of the situation

00:45:28.680 --> 00:45:32.200
we see from day one
in the State of Israel,

00:45:32.280 --> 00:45:35.240
state affairs always preceded women's issues,

00:45:35.320 --> 00:45:39.040
even though they're very aware

00:45:39.200 --> 00:45:43.080
of the huge potential women have
to influence public opinion

00:45:43.160 --> 00:45:45.160
and herein lies our tragedy.

00:45:45.240 --> 00:45:47.800
When it comes to Israel
it stands out even more

00:45:47.880 --> 00:45:50.920
because no matter what you say,
you'll always hear, "Defense,

00:45:51.120 --> 00:45:54.640
"foreign affairs, the budget,
the next war."

00:46:02.040 --> 00:46:03.560
Citizens of Israel,

00:46:04.720 --> 00:46:06.120
this is a fateful week.

00:46:06.200 --> 00:46:09.680
For the past 24 hours

00:46:09.760 --> 00:46:11.560
the IDF has been launching

00:46:11.640 --> 00:46:13.080
hundreds of attacks.

00:46:13.160 --> 00:46:18.320
We approved the budget
that ensures economic and political stability.

00:46:19.120 --> 00:46:22.520
It's said that politics is a man's world.

00:46:23.120 --> 00:46:25.400
The world is a man's world.

00:46:25.520 --> 00:46:27.360
It is still a man's world.

00:46:27.560 --> 00:46:32.040
The sphere of life

00:46:32.120 --> 00:46:36.400
is still shaped with laws,
rules and systems

00:46:36.480 --> 00:46:41.160
that are the result
of thousands and thousands of years

00:46:41.360 --> 00:46:45.080
that were exclusively shaped by men
and men of capital,

00:46:45.240 --> 00:46:49.120
in the days when women and children
and men without capital were property.

00:46:49.280 --> 00:46:52.840
Therefore,
though we have made tremendous strides,

00:46:52.920 --> 00:46:54.960
we are still in a man's world.

00:46:55.200 --> 00:46:59.000
That's true for politics
and many other walks of life,

00:46:59.080 --> 00:47:00.360
let alone most of them,

00:47:00.800 --> 00:47:02.120
let alone all of them.

00:47:12.800 --> 00:47:16.480
There is still inequality
despite the many endeavors

00:47:16.560 --> 00:47:19.200
by women with feminist agendas
in the Knesset.

00:47:19.280 --> 00:47:24.400
As of 2022 we are still far
from equality between men and women,

00:47:24.480 --> 00:47:30.080
especially when it comes to economy,
politics and violence,

00:47:30.160 --> 00:47:35.360
those are the three issues
where there's still a long way to go.

00:47:51.960 --> 00:47:54.760
The feminist revolution isn't over.

00:47:55.080 --> 00:47:57.920
Just two historical minutes ago
women couldn't vote.

00:47:58.680 --> 00:48:01.880
And what we want,
which is so simple,

00:48:01.960 --> 00:48:04.160
is equality between men and women

00:48:04.800 --> 00:48:06.760
and the woman's right
over her body and soul,

00:48:06.840 --> 00:48:08.720
we haven't achieved that yet.

00:48:30.120 --> 00:48:32.800
Women aren't in the highest seats of power.

00:48:32.880 --> 00:48:33.960
Only men.

00:48:34.040 --> 00:48:36.720
The honchos that make
the important decisions,

00:48:36.800 --> 00:48:38.160
that control the resources,

00:48:38.240 --> 00:48:39.320
they're all men.

00:48:39.400 --> 00:48:43.080
It's so hard for women
to make it to the top.

00:48:44.000 --> 00:48:48.040
I always felt inferior to the men,

00:48:48.280 --> 00:48:50.320
not to mention the generals,
forget about it.

00:48:50.600 --> 00:48:53.360
I adopted an aggressive tone

00:48:53.440 --> 00:48:56.720
so that no one would interpret it
as a weakness.

00:48:57.000 --> 00:49:02.080
I get to the discussion,
the maps and aerial images are on the table,

00:49:02.160 --> 00:49:04.960
everyone's focusing
on where the planes will attack from

00:49:05.040 --> 00:49:06.680
and I voted against.

00:49:07.040 --> 00:49:10.400
No doubt it will be associated
with the fact that I'm a woman

00:49:10.480 --> 00:49:13.240
and not that I had a different strategy.

00:49:13.320 --> 00:49:15.840
It's confronting...

00:49:15.920 --> 00:49:17.080
look at my hands,

00:49:17.520 --> 00:49:19.640
very significant forces.

00:49:19.720 --> 00:49:23.600
There are men
who have been in politics for many years,

00:49:23.680 --> 00:49:25.960
that are very skilled in power.

00:49:26.240 --> 00:49:29.560
It's hard being a woman in politics,

00:49:29.640 --> 00:49:31.680
it's ingrained, we live with it.

00:49:31.760 --> 00:49:34.280
When you walk outdoors at night

00:49:34.360 --> 00:49:35.640
and someone follows you,

00:49:35.720 --> 00:49:37.960
you're afraid,
because you're a woman,

00:49:38.560 --> 00:49:40.960
that's how tough politics is.

00:49:41.040 --> 00:49:42.640
Someone is following you.