In a victory against the exclusion of women in Israel, the Jerusalem District Court ruled that there should be no signs calling for separation between men and women at cemeteries, unless the bereaved family requests it for the duration of the funeral.

The ruling follows a legal petition by NIF grantee Israel Religious Action Centre (IRAC). The legal case was launched after the chevrot kadisha (burial society) in Jerusalem and Rehovot ignored Ministry for Religious Services guidelines forbidding gender separation at cemeteries.

IRAC attorney Erez Lahovski said: “This is excellent news, since it involves two chevrot kadisha that adamantly refused to work according to the Ministry for Religious Services contract, which ordered the removal of the signs. This is the end of the separation signs in the cemeteries.”