Ticked: Sports Events Summary Clip, May 29 (Sports5)
In a ruling handed down Tuesday by the Basketball Association Tribunal, it was determined that there is nothing wrong with the association's regulations that allow teams in the children's leagues to refuse to include players in their ranks and even refuse to play against another team that will integrate girls into its ranks in children's teams and basketball.
As is known, in May 2022, the Free Israel Movement filed a lawsuit following the story of 10.5-year-old Ayala Yamin from Kibbutz Tzora, who asked to participate in league games as part of a mixed group of boys and girls and was demanded by the rival boys' team, Elitzur-Efrat, to leave the field in disgrace and under the auspices of the association's bylaws. A month later, the Israel Basketball Association published new regulations that allow a team to announce in black and white that it does not agree to play against a team in which girls participate, subject to prior notice, and accordingly, Free Israel filed an amended petition against the amended regulations that it believes did not correct the injustice against female players.
Ayala Yamin, Hapoel Mateh Yehuda (Screenshot, from the TV broadcast)
In its ruling, the Israeli Basketball Association court rejected the Free Israel petition, arguing, inter alia, that it was a theoretical petition, even though actress Ayala Yamin had given permission to the movement to act on its behalf.
The ruling added: "The commitment to give equal opportunity to women's activism also involves an implied obligation not to disproportionately harm another sector or gender. In other words, the scope of equal opportunity for women's activity is bound up with various balancing considerations, including the degree of harm to one's view or faith lifestyle," and stated that "the mixed games regulation is consistent with the constitutional protection of the right to equality, including a measured derogation from the absolute realization of the right to equality."
Uri Kedar, CEO of Free Israel: "The association works against the law and implements the exclusion of childhood in practice when it places religious feelings above the value of equality. The new regulations, along with the fact that no active action is taken to increase the limited number of girls' teams, creates an active exclusion of girls from the basketball courts and prevents the development of women's basketball. We will not agree to the continuation of the current situation and will use all legal tools to reverse the decision."
Adv. Adia Sheinwald of Kalay-Rosen & Co. said: "Free Israel approached the court on behalf of an actress who was harmed by the discriminatory practice employed by the union. This actress joins many girls and girls who have been excluded and asked to sit on the bench for many years just because of their gender. The amendment, which in itself attests to the incompetence of the union over the years, does not prevent further discrimination - any team can declare itself a religious group that does not play with girls and exclude female players, even in cases where there is no group for girls in the community. It is unfortunate that the union's tribunal chose to continue the harm to the union's basketball players, and to disavow the provisions of the law that speak of giving equal opportunity to women's activities in sports."
- sport
- basketball
- Women's basketball
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- Israeli basketball