The Haredi parties – Agudat Yisrael, and later on Shas and United Torah Judaism – have never included women on their candidate lists for the general and municipal elections.
In December 2014, they sent a public letter to the Haredi Members of Knesset, in which they laid out their request to have women representatives in Shas and United Torah Judaism.
The members of Nivcharot have also published numerous articles regarding this issue, and have been interviewed by Haredi and general media outlets in Israel and other countries.
Despite the extensive and positive coverage garnered by the protest movement in the general media, it was received with harsh criticism by the Haredi mainstream.
The women of Nivcharot have even received various threats, including a declaration made by Mordechai Bloy, number 48 on United Torah Judaism's Knesset candidate list, who wrote in an internal pamphlet that "any woman who comes near a party that is not guided by the leading rabbis – will receive no ketubah, and it is prohibited to study in her educational institutions, or to purchase any product from her, and it is a mitzvah to remove all of her children from the institutions [...], and the same applies also to men".
[10] This pamphlet has led the Deputy Attorney General, Dina Silber, and the Chair of the Israeli Central Elections Committee, Justice Salim Joubran, to send a harsh letter condemning this statement to the heads of all parties registered in Israel, threatening legal sanctions.
Contrary to this criticism, Yitzhak Ravitz, the chairman of Degel HaTorah party in Beitar Illit, stated in January 2015 that if an halachic permission is granted, there appears to be no reason why women cannot conduct parliamentary work as well.