Interior Minister (Shas) Eli Yishai appears to be taking a firmer approach to this year’s reported discrimination against hundreds of Sephardi girls who are not being permitted into Ashkenazi chareidi mosdos. Some of the municipalities in which there are reports of discrimination this year include Yerushalayim, Modi’in Illit and Bnei Brak. According to aides to the senior minister, he has ordered those municipalities to halt funding for the schools involved.

Officials in Yishai’s office explain that close to 400 girls are sitting at home since they have not been accepted into a school. The minister has decided to halt funding in the hope of pressuring local government to act to compel schools to accept the girls as they should.

Yishai is quoted as saying “The only crime these girls are guilty of is not being born the right skin color”.

(YWN – Israel Desk, Jerusalem)