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Wednesday, July 31, 2013

Beit Shemesh: Haredi arrested for telling woman to sit in back of bus; riot ensues


Haredim in Beit Shemesh hurled stones at an Egged bus on Wednesday about an hour after an ultra-Orthodox man were detained by police on the same street for demanding that a woman sit in the back of the bus.

The bus's windows were shattered, but police said no one was injured in the incident, which occurred at around noon.
  
The commotion began when a haredi man delayed the bus and demanded that a female passenger move to the rear. 

Police were alerted to the scene and took the man into custody. Officers detained for questioning another woman who disrupted the arrest.
  
Some two years ago a mass protest was held in Beit Shemesh against religious extremism in the city and the exclusion of women from the public sphere and their degradation.

The protest was sparked by an incident in which ultra-Orthodox men spat on eight-year-old Na'ama Margolis as she was walking to school and called her a prostitute because her modest dress did not adhere exactly to their more rigorous dress code.

Protesters hoisted banners reading "Free Israel from religious coercion," "Stop Israel from becoming Iran," "Segregation is a red line," and "The majority is silent no more."

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