After communication with CAMERA staff, the New York Times corrected its erroneous claim that there is a “requirement” of gender segregation on buses passing through ultra-Orthodox neighborhoods.
The error, which originally appeared in the story “Israel Moves to End Gender Segregation in Public Spaces,” appears below allong with the correction.
Error (New York Times, Jodi Rudoren, 5/9/13): … years of mounting tension and legal battles over the treatment of women in Israel’s public sphere, particularly the requirement that they sit in the back on bus lines through ultra-Orthodox neighborhoods, which set off civil disobedience campaigns involving many Jews from overseas.
Correction (5/11/13): An article on Thursday about Israel’s moving to end gender segregation in public spaces and public activities misstated the current policy regarding such segregation on buses. Israel’s Supreme Court ruled in 2011 that men and women could sit separately on buses only if they did so voluntarily; women are no longer required to sit in the back of buses.
The article and the correction failed to note that, although there is on a few specific bus lines a tacit but unenforceable agreement that men and women sit separately, on the vast majority of buses that travel through ultra-Orthodox neighborhoods there is no such separation.