Tel-Chai Nation

What was discovered occurring at women's expense in the past decade via Haredi extremists is still prevalent today, and it's to be hoped right-wing officials recognize the severe damage it can cause if they don't address the issue. For example, according to this May report from Ashdod:

A television network on Sunday broadcast footage showing a woman being denied entry to a public bus in Ashdod because Haredi men on board insisted it was only for men.

In the video, the woman tried to board a bus on the number 80 line operated by the Electra Afikim company.

“Only for men,” a man can be heard saying as the woman is stopped at the front door of the bus.

“Go by foot or take another line,” the driver advises her.

When challenged by the driver that she has the right to board, he responded: “What can I say? It is not my issue.”

The network did not identify the woman or explain why she was carrying a hidden camera to record the incident. A similar occurrence took place on the same bus line last week.

Under Israeli law, gender segregation is illegal in public spaces, including on transportation. Orthodox parties have long demanded legislation that would permit gender segregation at publicly funded events. By way of explanation, Electra Afikim said drivers sometimes bar women from buses to prevent them from being attacked by Haredi passengers, but said that it will stamp out the phenomenon.

See, this is exactly why the Haredis shouldn't be demanding gender segregated events; how do they expect to distinguish themselves from Islamists who do the same? Oh wait, that's the problem, they're too ignorant to consider. As for the company, let's hope they understand the harm they've caused by refusing to enforce order on their bus lines.

Last week a 17-year-old girl in Ashdod was denied access to a number 80 bus she wanted to ride home, the local Ashdodi news website reported at the time.

The girl and another woman tried to board the bus along with a man, but only the latter was permitted to enter, while they were told by the driver the bus was for men only.

The Ashdodi website inquired at the Electra Afikim information booth in Ashdod’s central bus station about the number 80 bus, but workers there insisted that there is no such line operating in the city, even though the route showed up on Electra Afikim’s own information site.

After further inquiries, Electra Afikim told Ashdodi that the line had been specially coordinated by a senior official in the company on behalf of Haredi yeshiva students, and that it was a “private line” for men only.

Something tells me they were trying to dodge the issue, and that was wrong.

As a public transportation service, the bus line cannot legally refuse passage to women.

According to Channel 12, there have been similar incidents on other routes in Ashdod, the fifth largest city in the country and one that has seen its Haredi population grow rapidly in recent years. Women have also been denied entry to buses on lines 74 and 79, the report said.

The network also reported that a few meters from the bus stop where the woman was denied entry, the faces of women and girls on a large poster were vandalized. The destruction of images of women in public spaces is another tactic embraced by some Haredi activists.

Attorney Gili Zinger, deputy CEO of Israel Women’s Network rights group, told Channel 12 that incidents of discrimination against women on buses in Ashdod are “part of a phenomenon that is becoming more extreme and expanding every day.”

“These are things that did not happen before. It should be understood that this is against the law, it is also a criminal offense,” she stressed.

Electra Afikim responded to the Channel 12 report in a statement saying “the company is against the exclusion of women, and following the incident the driver was summoned for a talk, and instructions were clarified among all the drivers.”

The company said that when bus passengers act against the women, “the driver, out of fear for their [the women’s] safety, sometimes offers another alternative.”

It said drivers have now been instructed that when faced with a similar dilemma, they should stop the bus and call the police.

The Transportation Ministry said in a response that “any kind of discrimination against passengers on public transport is forbidden.”

The ministry added it will instruct public transportation companies to be diligent in following regulations and “will take serious action on any report is receives on the matter.”

By refusing to defend the lady passengers, the drivers did exactly what Ruthie Blum once made a point about: men (and women) refusing to defend a woman's honor and dignity. And that's very serious. Even the vandalism of advertisements is offensive. And speaking of buses, more recently, there was this disgusting incident in Tel Aviv that was actually caused by a bus driver:

A bus driver berated a female passenger in Tel Aviv on Tuesday for wearing a tank top, which he considered to be immodest, causing the woman to get off the bus, the Kan public broadcaster reported Wednesday.

“Put a shirt on,” the driver told Romi Inbar, who got off two stops later because of how shocked and offended she was by the incident. “You can’t walk around like that,” the driver added, and another passenger reportedly joined him.

“This is a difficult and horrible situation,” Inbar told Kan in a radio interview.

The 20-year-old said the driver started yelling at her as she got on the back of the bus. “I couldn’t really understand what he was saying, I thought he was telling me to pay or something else, and then one of the passengers said that he told me to put on a shirt. He kept saying it to make sure I heard him. I didn’t know what to do.”

Inbar added that the whole bus remained silent except for a mother who told the driver that she can wear whatever she wants. “When I sat down, I felt totally humiliated,” she told Kan. “I posted an [Instagram story], and I’m speaking now because this can’t happen to other girls.”

In a statement, the Dan bus company said: “If any passengers were made to feel uncomfortable, we apologize.”

There have been past cases of discrimination against women on public transportation in Israel.

In May, it was reported that ultra-Orthodox men often prevent women from boarding buses in the southern city of Ashdod.

Fortunate that another woman stood up for her, but, that men wouldn't has got to be speaking volumes. This incident also makes clear there's non-Haredi men who tragically agree and side with how the Haredi clannists think, so you can see how ultra-Orthodox sexists got away with their antics up to a point, whether on public transportation or anywhere else. Equally offensive here is how these incidents serve to take attention away from the modern crisis of male transsexual ideologues who're causing similar problems for women, including for Abigail Shrier, and Israel's just as vulnerable as the USA and elsewhere.

And then, on a train service, some Haredi passengers used very obscene language in reference to some lady soldiers traveling on board:

Female soldiers were humiliated by an ultra-Orthodox family who got on the same train as them on Tuesday, according to a video that was spread on social media on Wednesday.

The video, which was taken by one of the soldiers, showed the children in the family chanting "We'll die rather than enlist" and "to prison and not to the army." They also called them "the IDF's shadows of death" and shikse (a derogatory term for women who aren't Jewish) and asked aloud if dogs are allowed on the train.

That's clearly another way of alluding to the B-word that rhymes with "witch". It reminds me of cases of racism and sexism against Aboriginal Australians that were reported a few years ago, and it's just as offensive. This is exactly why the time's come to start teaching everybody that anti-female vulgarity is simply unacceptable.

The children were not alone as one of the women in the group joined in saying that "the cleaning company brought the garbage dump onto the train."

One of the soldier's mothers told N12 in an interview that her daughter realized during the incident that some of the family members were reciting the Kaddish prayer for them which is part of the Jewish mourning process.

At some point in the video, one of the kids notes that one of the soldiers is crying and says "That's it, she's crying. Calm down."

Ultra-Orthodox minister condemns behavior

"Anyone who humiliates their friend in public has no place in the world to come," said United Torah Judaism's chairman Yitzhak Goldknopf in response to the video on Wednesday. "Every Jew is who they are, and IDF soldiers are included in that too. I condemn this behavior which doesn't represent the general Torah-observing public."

The incident came as the ultra-Orthodox parties in the government are pushing for a new draft law that will allow them to be exempt from military service. In June, the government cabinet instructed the IDF not to draft ultra-Orthodox men until such a draft was passed.

If they really want to show remorse, the Haredi politicians could set a good example by sitting next to women like these on public transport, and shake their hands, not to mention put up pictures of women to appreciate, both past and present in a special display at the Knesset. And maybe they should also consider cutting out the demand for exemptions from army service, though that's still nothing compared to the serious need for respecting other people's dignity.

The above incidents were completely avoidable, and it's about time the right-wing itself clearly address this.

Labels: haredi corruption, Israel, military, misogyny, Moonbattery