The women journalists who covered the trip Vice President Mike Pence took to Israel found themselves on the receiving end of two unpleasant surprises on Monday and Tuesday when the Vice President visited the Western Wall in Jerusalem.
The first of these two problems was unnecessarily invasive security checks at the hands of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s security detail. A female journalist from Finland’s state television was asked to remove her bra during what the Chicago Tribune describes as an “overly zealous and demeaning security check.” When she, understandably, refused to do so, she wasn’t allowed to cover the news conference with Pence and Netanyahu. This isn’t the first time such ridiculous “security” measures have been taken when it comes to press events for the Israeli prime minister. An Al Jazeera journalist said she was also asked to take her bra off during a security check for an event in 2011.
When the journalists arrived at The Western Wall, which is the outer wall of what’s called the Temple Mount by Jews and al-Haram al-Sharif by Muslims, women were moved off to one side of a fence with men on the other side. This is standard protocol with the Orthodox Judaism, as one of their heritage foundations currently has authority over the site. The plaza is split half by a fence. Women must pray on one side, and men pray on the other side. There can be no crossover. The women who pray there are not allowed to read aloud from the Torah, wear prayer shawls or sing.
The view from behind the men, #PenceinIsrael #2018. #PenceFence pic.twitter.com/WjofQODlLM
— Noga Tarnopolsky (@NTarnopolsky) January 23, 2018
Platforms were set up for the press at the event, but there was one small problem. The two platforms were the same height, with the women reporters standing directly behind the male reporters. They were more or less unable to be seen by both Pence and Netanyahu and they weren’t able to get any good shots of either man.
Having the men stand right in front of them ruined any of their potential shots of the even to a certain degree. But the addition of many cameras and boom mics meant that it was somewhere between extremely difficult and impossible to get any video or pictures of the event. Their questions during the press conference also went largely ignored, due in part to their near-invisibility.
The foundation said in a statement that the circumstances had been the same during President Trump’s visit to the wall in May last year, and they “reject any attempt to divert the discussion from the important and moving visit of the US Vice President and his wife at the Western Wall.”
The attending women journalist immediately called BS on the statement, and created the hashtag “#pencefence” on Twitter to continue to speak out against their treatment.
Separation at the Western Wall. The women stuck in isolation and can not photograph, work. Women journalists are second-class citizens. The American women photographers are frantically yelling at the representatives of the White House. #PenceFence pic.twitter.com/LFh1AkSROE
— Tal Schneider (@talschneider) January 23, 2018
When it’s a bit hard to do your job / women journalists forced to stand behind the men at the separation fence at the western wall for Mike Pence’s visit #PenceInIsrael #PenceFence pic.twitter.com/IsXbJ0jTi5
— Ariane Ménage (@ariane_menage) January 23, 2018
In the hashtag, they protested against their treatment as “second-class citizens” and the resulting inability to do their work effectively. White House Correspondent Jenna Johnson, who traveled to the press conference along with other journalists and Pence, said local journalists had already set up by the time they got there and “there were tons more men than women, and the female journalists were very angry about the separation.”
This is also not the first time the set-up at The Western Wall has been the source of controversy. The gender segregation has been an increasingly hot topic among a growing number of Jewish advocacy groups. Many of them demand a space be created for equal, mixed-gender prayer. In 2016, Netanyahu agreed to create a third space for unsegregated prayer, but went back on his promise at the last minute. This, understandably, infuriated the groups and increased feelings of abandonment and isolation, especially among American Jews. In the wake of the segregated press conference, Women of the Wall – a group that has been at the forefront of the fight for egalitarian space for prayer – said in a statement that senior female journalists “experienced first-hand what happens to a woman who challenges the ultra-Orthodox monopoly of the Western Wall.”
Netanyahu’s office issued an apology to the reporter from Finland in regards to the invasive security check, but stands by its statement concerning the continuing segregation around The Western Wall.