Madam Police Officer, I am not guilty: 18 Haredi women recently enlisted in the Israel Police - and after a special course, they will begin working as investigators.
In January 2012, senior officials in the Israel Police, through Rabbi Asher Melamed, the rabbi of the Central District of the Israel Police, approached the organization with a mission: to recruit women from the ultra-Orthodox sector to the position of investigators in the police.
The idea that was born even earlier began to take shape, and already at an initial stage a group of Haredi women asked to join the ranks of the police. The terms of employment in the police, for those with education and supplementary courses - are considered to be preferred. However, the Israel Police reached the practical recruitment stage, when it was unprepared and the recruitment was delayed. The women, some of whom were mothers taking care of homes and families, could not wait too long in their search for sources of income, and by the time the Israel Police decided to implement the recruitment - most of them were already immersed in other workplaces.
Those who did stick to the challenge and waited, underwent tests and exams - at the end of which two women remained. But even then, it became clear that the Israel Police was still not prepared to absorb them: the Commissioner and the Minister of Public Security urged - and the commanders clashed. The women were assured that studying at the police school would not interfere with the family framework, but the school commander refused to allow a daily study schedule, without sleeping on site.
Finally, the two women were accepted as police officers at the police control center, two weeks apart. Even there, the women did not ask for special conditions, and difficulties were still encountered, but the police commissioner insisted that the women serve as police officers and not as civilians working for the police. This was to improve their working conditions. Their persistence in their tasks proved to their superiors that they were faced with dedicated and responsible police officers who performed their duties as required, and their work productivity and professionalism positioned them as preferred.
The Israel Police recently completed its second recruitment, which includes 18 women. They will be joined by the two policewomen already serving, and in about a month they will attend an investigator course at the Israel Police, after which they will be integrated into the positions for which they were recruited in two different areas.
Due to the disagreements between the various departments, the girls will take the investigators course without attending police school, even though they will have to pass the tests and exams required of every police officer.
At this point, Rabbi Asher Melamed can breathe a sigh of relief. After two and a half years, he succeeded in the task assigned to him from on high: to set up a project to absorb Haredi women as police officers, and this at a time when the rift between the ruling establishment and the law enforcement agencies and the Haredi sector was deepening.
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