Israel top court upholds segregated university classes

Israel's supreme court has upheld the right of some universities in the Jewish state to offer segregated classes as a means to integrate the ultra-Orthodox in education and the job market.

The move is another step in the right direction, Gilad Malach of the Israeli Democracy Institute in Jerusalem said on Tuesday.

"If we go back 20 years, there were 1,000 ultra-Orthodox students (in Israeli universities). Today, there are almost 14,000," he told AFP.

The supreme court passed the decision on Monday night, legalising separate classes for men and women, already a years-old practice in universities catering to the ultra-Orthodox or Haredim (the God-fearing), as they are called in Hebrew.

However, the court said universities cannot bar female instructors from teaching all-male classes.

The Haredim represent about 12 percent of Israel's nine-million population, a figure expected to rise to 20 percent by 2040 because of high birth rates among the religious community.

Many Haredi men study in state-subsidised religious institutions called yeshivot rather than work.

Malach said the insertion of the community into the workforce through higher education was "essential" for Israel's economic future.

Ultra-Orthodox women and some men are exempt from compulsory military service in Israel, as are Israeli Arabs.