Five Higher Education Council members resign over gender-segregation law

Five members of Israel's Council for Higher Education (CHE) resigned Monday, protesting a new law that expands gender segregation in academic studies. They warned the legislation represents "unprecedented interference" in the council's independence and could exclude women from Israeli academia.

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Approval of the law concerning gender segregation in advanced-degree studies in academia constitutes unprecedented interference in the independence of the Council for Higher Education.

Four members submitted a joint resignation letter to President Isaac Herzog and Education Minister Yoav Kisch, the council's chairman. A fifth, Moshe Vigdor, resigned separately. The four signatories included prominent professors from Hebrew University, Technion, and Ben-Gurion University. Vigdor, CEO of the Mandel Foundation Israel, previously served as the CHE's director-general.

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In these circumstances, we cannot continue to serve as members of the council and thereby grant legitimacy to steps that contradict the values for which we were asked to serve.

The departing members argued that approving gender segregation in advanced studies fundamentally harms Israeli higher education's core values: academic freedom, equality, excellence, and pluralism. They expressed concern that the law could lead to the exclusion of women as students, researchers, and faculty, potentially damaging academic standards, public trust, and Israel's international academic standing.

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The law will grant state legitimacy to the exclusion of women in academia, and subsequently in additional public spaces.

"In these circumstances, we cannot continue to serve as members of the council and thereby grant legitimacy to steps that contradict the values for which we were asked to serve," the joint letter stated. Vigdor echoed these concerns, stating the law undermines the council's ability to uphold academic standards and equality. He added, "The law will grant state legitimacy to the exclusion of women in academia, and subsequently in additional public spaces." Vigdor emphasized his decision was not political, driven instead by a belief in a strong, free, equal, and excellent academic system. He felt he could not "lend a hand to this - not through my voice and not through my silence" if the CHE became a "rubber stamp" for measures contradicting its foundations.

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In the situation that has been created, in which the Council for Higher Education may become a rubber stamp for measures that contradict its scientific and ethical foundations, I cannot lend a hand to this - not through my voice and not through my silence.