Tel-Chai Nation

As expected, lawsuits have deservedly been filed against 3 Israeli bus companies for sex discrimination on their vehicles at the behest of Haredi passengers:

Several girls and young women are filing lawsuits against bus companies after a series of separate recent incidents in which they claim they were discriminated against.

According to the local Haifa branch of the Ynet news site, a 14-year-old girl is suing the semi-private Egged for NIS 271,500 ($72,000) on charges that she was harassed and discriminated against when she boarded a bus in the city due to her outfit.

The lawsuit filed in the Haifa Magistrate’s Court claims that the teenager got on a 76 bus line in the city wearing shorts and a strapless top over a bathing suit. The driver allegedly asked her: “Do you have anything [else] to put on,” and then told her that if an inspector came she could be fined for her clothing choice.

“It was mortifying… the whole bus looked at me, it was embarrassing, I didn’t know what to do,” the teenager told Channel 12 news on Sunday. “Since then I’ve been barely taking buses, I just don’t want anyone to say anything to me. If I do, I get on via the back door.”

In a statement, Egged said that it had immediately launched an inquiry into the incident once a complaint was made, and that the lawsuit “will be handled and addressed in court.”

The news of the lawsuit comes amid a series of similar incidents in recent weeks that have made national headlines, in which women and girls have been told to sit in the back of the bus, told to cover up, or refused boarding due to the sensitivities of religious male passengers.

Such incidents are not rare, but have created a firestorm in recent weeks as many people have sought to tie the incidents to the current right-wing religious government. Similar occurrences have happened on a regular basis for many years, without always making national news.

The lawsuit filed by the family of the 14-year-old from Haifa joins at least two other similar suits in recent weeks. According to Channel 12 news, Hila Peleg, a 21-year-old from Ashdod, is suing the Electra-Afikim bus company after she was refused boarding on an 85 line bus in the city, and was told by the driver that the bus was only for men.

In addition, the family members of a group of young women who were told to sit in the back of the bus and cover their outfits with blankets on an 885 bus line from Ashdod to Safed have also chosen to sue the Nateev Express bus company over the incident.

In response to the occurrence, Nateev Express issued a statement saying that the company “takes seriously and condemns any exclusion [of others] in the public space.” The company said the driver in question was employed by one of its subcontractors, and “acted contrary to the clear instructions of the company, the Transportation Ministry and the law.”

Nateev Express added that the driver has been suspended and the company apologized to the young women and instructed all its subcontractors “to refresh their drivers on the law and the Transportation Ministry instructions which bar such behavior.”

Right-wingers should be concerned how this'll rub off on them. It'd be strongly advised that right-wing lawyers represent the victims here. That aside, all this has led to the demonstration planned for tomorrow in Bnei Brak:

Police on Monday approved plans for a women’s rights protest in the Haredi city of Bnei Brak, after a string of incidents that advocates say amount to discrimination, and as critics decry the right-religious coalition’s policies toward women.

The protest is scheduled for the city center of Bnei Brak, located outside Tel Aviv, on Thursday evening.

The event will include a march through the densely populated city, which is overwhelmingly Haredi. Organizers had requested a march route that would have passed by a prominent synagogue, but police approved a different route, passing the municipality’s headquarters, Channel 12 reported.

The organizers said they expect 10,000 demonstrators to participate.

“We won’t stay silent any longer about the evasion [of responsibility]. We won’t stay silent about sending our daughters to the back of buses. We won’t stay silent about chauvinism and the exclusion of women from positions of power,” organizers said in a statement.

“With good [intentions], determination, and great women’s solidarity we are saying to the Haredi leadership and the government: enough,” organizers said.

As I may have mentioned before, I knew this would lead to blaming a right-wing coalition for what happened, which is the sad part, because while the ultra-Orthodox do need to be sent a message, that doesn't mean the entire government is responsible, and you likely wouldn't hear this blame heaped upon a left-wing government. Though it does make clear that if the right-wing doesn't want to be blamed en masse by leftists who milk these issues for all they're worth, they should publicly criticize the Haredi lifestyle. It also says here:

On Sunday, extremist Haredim set fire to the tires of four buses on a street in Jerusalem in protest of ads with photos of women that were on the sides of the bus. Extremist members of the ultra-Orthodox community defacing images of women in public areas is another common phenomenon in recent years.

If so, this marks another serious offense that tarnishes their reputation, no matter what difference there is in sects and tribes of these fools. All involved in that incident should be jailed for endangering lives with fire.

There were also 2 letters published in the Jerusalem Post this week addresing the issue of Haredis who've led to bus discrimination. One:

Reading “Stop transport discrimination” (editorial, August 16), I was reminded of my experience in Monsey, New York many decades ago when there was a bus with a curtain down the middle aisle, men and women on separate sides. It was a private bus originating in a hassidic community, among many other public buses accessible to all. It had its own routes and schedules which made it more convenient at times than other companies.

I sometimes used it when traveling directly to mid-Manhattan, and one year in particular when I was taking a university course ending late at night, I was a regular rider embarking right next to the college in Manhattan and disembarking a block from my home in Monsey. Needless to say it was a great convenience to me to have that option, and I gave little thought at the time to the separation down the center.

I was aware also that at times husbands and wives would sit together, usually right at the front of the bus. It seemed very congenial at the time and certainly a far cry from women having to board at the back entrance of the bus as described as happening today.

It was several years later, that I heard a lawsuit claiming discrimination had been brought against the bus company. The legal basis for the suit, I believe, claimed discrimination under the 14th Amendment, and since the federal government had the right to regulate interstate transportation (the bus passed through New Jersey on the way to Manhattan), the claimant won.

It marked the end of the “curtain down the middle” buses, although I think there was still a minyan bus in the mornings. By that time, I had stopped using the bus, but I remember it now as a symbol of a different time and place.

Two:

Haredi religious fanaticism should be a national security issue for Israel. This month, the highly influential New York Times, read by millions, published a shocking article on the growing denigration of women in Israel by haredim. This comes after recent extensive coverage by the Times of hassidim in Greater New York rejecting secular education in yeshivas, along with other, similar reporting regarding haredim in Israel.

Long gone are the 1950s and 1960s when the small, plucky democracy of Israel captivated America. The bestseller Exodus, the film of the same name, and Israel’s stunning victory in the Six Day War of 1967 cemented America’s affection for Israel. Today, the noble image of Israel in America has dramatically diminished.

Since haredim have a staggering birth rate, in several decades they will form most of Israeli Jews. If the religious extremism continues, and even increases, not only will it alienate American non-Orthodox Jews, who are major supporters of and donors to Israel, but it will also estrange America whose financial and diplomatic aid to the country is crucial. It is absurd that the haredim who contribute relatively little to Israel’s economy and military should also destroy its vital bond with America.

Equal women’s rights are the touchstone of all Western democracies. In leftist circles in the US, many already demonize Israel, ridiculously, as an apartheid country. Why compound this ostracizing of Israel by allowing it now to be called misogynist?

Mainstream Israeli Jews should know that the American public will not tolerate a Jewish Taliban state and will demand that its government cut ties with it.

What's really angering is how this provides ammunition for the very leftists who won't say a word about Islam doing anything even remotely similar, and even some Haredis themselves don't say a word about Islamofascism. Worst, in the case of the Satmar in the past decade, they practically embrace the Religion of Peace's followers.

Now here's an op-ed writer asking if Orthodox Judaism is alienating people from religion:

Stories of faith are usually very inspiring because they almost always include elements of mercy, miraculous events which can only be attributed to divine intervention and, most of all, they provide us with much-needed hope when all other avenues have failed. But, as we all know, matters of faith can also have a huge downside and toxicity, evoking the worst in people, especially when they feel compelled to comply or looked upon with disdain for not being pious enough. That is probably why the topic of religion is right up there with politics, as the subject to avoid, when trying to prevent arguments.

In Israel, the issue of religion is one which is not easy to navigate since there are so many different expressions of it that are present in the country. Yet, everyone knows that the one expression of faith, which dominates Israel, is Orthodox Judaism. That is because it has the most adherents, and it is also symbiotically connected to political and social power. Regrettably, it is that tethered relationship that permeates so much of what goes on in the country – everything from the passage of laws to the question of who is a Jew, who is permitted to be married in the country and by whom.

And yet, it hasn’t been all that intrusive into the lives of most Israelis until now. The moment that a fully Orthodox coalition took control of the government, accompanied by the heavy-handed spirit of religiosity, with its many rules and obligations, Israelis have reacted with anger and great displeasure. Oddly enough, it is not because they have a disdain for tradition, Jewish holiday observance or the rich legacy of our scriptures. Those are all elements which are very revered and appreciated by most Israelis.

In this case, it is the sense of being told, by their government, how they will be permitted to live and conduct business. That is what most Israeli citizens feel - that a group of ultra-Orthodox religious parties are now in a position to force their religious convictions on the rest of us who think otherwise.

Read more, but the point is made that there's valid reason to worry about the harm these incidents are bound to cause to Orthodox Judaism as a whole by rubbing off on it, unless standard Orthodox representatives can prove they're willing to distance themselves from anybody Haredi who's even remotely willing to allow these awful situations to continue. That's something Orthodox leaders are going to have to consider. They can even fight back against these problems by publicly making clear women can wear what they want, and nobody, not even Haredis, can tell them otherwise. Let's hope the general Orthodox leaderships are willing to take that challenge.

Labels: haredi corruption, Israel, Judaism, Knesset, misogyny, Moonbattery