The Knesset voted 52-43 to approve an amendment to the Student Rights Law allowing higher education institutions to offer gender-segregated graduate degree programs, in a vote held in the early hours of Thursday morning.
The legislation, Amendment No. 12, 2026, was sponsored by MK Limor Son-Har Melech (Otzma Yehudit). Under the amendment, higher education institutions may operate gender-segregated programs for advanced degrees.
At institutions that otherwise offer mixed-gender studies, segregation will be permitted only in classrooms and only for students who choose to enroll in the programs.
An uproar erupted in the plenum when opposition lawmakers held up signs reading, “Segregation is exclusion,” to protest the legislation.
MK Adi Ezuz of the Together Party said: “The most misogynistic government in Israel’s history is knowingly harming women’s rights in an unprecedented manner. Blessed be the fruit.”
‘Blessed be the fruit’
The proposal’s explanatory notes stated: “Currently, the Council for Higher Education allows institutions of higher education to operate gender segregated study programs, generally for bachelor’s degrees only, subject to additional conditions and restrictions under the framework it established.
“It is proposed to clarify in legislation that the provision stipulating that the existence of separate study programs for men and women for religious reasons will not be considered discrimination also applies to master’s and doctoral degree programs. This is intended to allow those who, because of their religious beliefs, are unable to participate in mixed academic studies to pursue advanced degrees in a wider range of fields.”
Yisrael Beytenu chairman MK Avigdor Liberman responded to the law’s passage: “The government of the October 7 massacre is trying to turn the State of Israel into a state of ayatollahs. This law is being added to what is already happening in Bnei Brak: segregation of women and men on public sidewalks. I call on the heads of universities and academic institutions not to cooperate with this madness.”
‘There is no such thing as separate but equal’
MK Merav Michaeli said: “There is no such thing as separate but equal. Certainly not in a coalition that acts in every way against equality. Against equality between women and men, against equality in sharing the burden, against equality before the law. A coalition that believes religious Jewish men are worth more than every woman and every man, in every field and at any cost. Everything else is lies and gaslighting.”
Son-Har Melech said, “Today, the Knesset stated clearly that genuine freedom of choice also includes the right to study separately. For years, a single worldview was imposed on the public, preventing thousands of women and men from advancing in academia without abandoning their way of life.
“The law we approved today does not impose anything on anyone. It expands freedom, enables diversity and respects the human mosaic of Israeli society. Anyone who believes in pluralism must also know how to accept choices that do not conform to their worldview.”
