MK Yair Lapid on Tuesday slammed Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu after it was revealed that he had agreed during failed coalition talks last month to an ultra-Orthodox demand to allow for gender segregation in public spaces, saying he was turning Israel into Iran.
Lapid, the number two in the Blue and White party and a long-time campaigner against religious coercion in Israel, said Netanyahu’s willingness to agree to such a condition was incomprehensible.
“The fact that Bibi surrendered to the demands of United Torah Judaism to introduce a law on segregating men and women in public spaces is nothing short of madness,” Lapid tweeted.
“The man who has been speaking out against Iran for 20 years now wants to import it,” he said, referring to Tehran’s strict Islamic theocracy.
The Avigdor Liberman’s Yisrael Beytenu party, which refused to join Netanyahu’s coalition by last week’s deadline, initiating snap elections scheduled for September.
“The cancellation of the prohibition on gender segregation is another step in transforming the State of Israel into a halacha (religious law) state,” Yisrael Beytenu said.