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.
"אפשר להעלות לכאן כלבים?": חיילות נסעו ברכבת - והושפלו מקריאותיה של משפחה חרדית - תיעודhttps://t.co/UDq6gcaA17@naimleee pic.twitter.com/s6Al5EOn79
— החדשות - N12 (@N12News) August 9, 2023
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.
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."
"I condemn this behavior which doesn't represent the general Torah-observing public."
Minister Yitzhak Goldknopf
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.