The Israel Religious Action Center (IRAC), the public and legal arm of the Reform movement, scored a victory against the chareidi led Beit Shemesh Municipality in its struggle to remove the city’s tznius signs. Representing five Orthodox women of Beit Shemesh who said they felt humiliated by the signs, the Yerushalayim District Court ruled with IRAC and found that Beit Shemesh was in contempt of court due to taking no action to remove large signs which request women to dress modestly or to avoid passing certain shuls and botei medrash. The municipality was ordered to take them down over a year ago when IRAC was already involved in the struggle for four years.
The court gave the city thirty days to remove five particular signs after which the city would be fined $1,400 daily for each sign still up.
The city responded that this was unfair.
“The municipality expresses surprise and disappointment that it has once again come under attack despite doing everything it can and removing the offensive signs many times,” the city said. “This is especially in light of the fact that no municipality of any other city was fined for such a thing including Yerushalayim where similar signs have hung for decades. The city does not have the necessary means [to enforce the ruling]; these are in the hands of the Israel Police.”
{Matzav.com Israel News Bureau}