News from 2006: Jewish woman reportedly beaten for not moving to back of bus in Israel

UPDATED: Mea culpa on my part. It turns out that this story is from 2006. That makes it no less disgusting, but it’s certainly not a burning issue. The date for the story was 15.12.06, but, in a hurry, I read that as December 6. Daniel Sieradski mentioned it today to make a point about Chief Rabbi Shlomo Amar’s comment that haredi treat Jewish women “like queens and princesses.”

Not surprisingly, the norm on the bus serving the Orthodox Jews of Brooklyn has counterparts in Israel. Haaretz reports:

Miriam Shear says she was traveling to pray at the Western Wall in Jerusalem’s Old City early on November 24 when a group of ultra-Orthodox (Haredi) men attacked her for refusing to move to the back of the Egged No. 2 bus. She is now in touch with several legal advocacy and women’s organizations, and at the same time, waiting for the police to apprehend her attackers.

In her first interview since the incident, Shear says that on the bus three weeks ago, she was slapped, kicked, punched and pushed by a group of men who demanded that she sit in the back of the bus with the other women. The bus driver, in response to a media inquiry, denied that violence was used against her, but Shear’s account has been substantiated by an unrelated eyewitness on the bus who confirmed that she sustained an unprovoked “severe beating.”

Read the rest here.

I’m sure some of my loyal readers will think I’m picking on Israel, having followed up the bad-brand post with this one. Far from it. This is all part of the healthy conversation and criticisms that should take place when people actually care about, and support, a country and its people.

Thanks to Daniel Sieradski for sharing the link.