You move to the back seat, and don't look!
In recent months we have witnessed the radicalization of religious coercion. It begins in "ghettos" scattered throughout Israeli cities entire areas meant for one type of population then spreads, to the point that I, as a woman, am now required to sit at the back of a bus, even if I am travelling in the heart of an entirely secular community. This extremism ends with various rabbis supporting the "exclusion of women" and using baseless excuses to preach to others to follow suit.
We the secular bleeding hearts, who constantly rail against discrimination aimed at one sector or another are the only ones to blame. The problem is that those groups belittle us, especially us women. They see us women who do not dress modestly as a "shiksa" (a derogatory term for non-Jewish women), a woman whose only aim is to distract men from their Torah lessons, instill impure thoughts in their minds, lead them to commit adultery, effectively reviving the redheaded witches, the seductresses who were burned at the stake during the Middle Ages.
As someone who lives among and respects all sectors of society, this current wave of hypocrisy and self-righteousness has all but forced me to think of dark regimes, which none of us would want to live under.
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Those ultra-Orthodox who I am sure represent only a small faction within their larger communities, like the few criminals responsible for the atrocious "price-tag" attacks on our soldiers are unleashing anarchy. And we are entirely responsible.
If you are given something, are you not going to take it? Why are we giving them our support-
Why are we broadcasting, writing about and bringing to light their hypocritical acts? Why are we trying to appease them like we do criminals, turning them into celebrities? Why did the police officers whom the woman in Ashdod turned to for help after ultra-Orthodox men demanded she move to the back of the bus tell her, the complainant, to move to the back, just to avoid, God forbid, angering those hypocrites? There is no doubt that the feeling of power that we and only we enable those sanctimonious people to feel is intoxicating.
This is where I turn to the heads of the complex, democratic state we have built here, and, of course, to its citizens, including the religious ones, whom I highly respect. Do not help this negative campaign threaten the wonderful thing we have built here: the principle of "live and let live."
I think about entire areas in the U.S., such as Brooklyn, in which ultra-Orthodox Jews live side by side with other ethnic minorities; where there is no coercion or imposition of one's lifestyle on those travelling with them on the subway or bus. There is no doubt that the "other," is accepted there, as long as he or she does not disturb or harm anyone else.
We must preserve the same principle, using all our strength, here in Israel, and not allow those few to sow terror, coercion and fear among us. After all, those few would not hesitate to move an old lady with a cane to the back of the bus because she may disrupt their pure thoughts.
And if women do interfere with your pure thoughts, here's an ingenious idea: You move to the back of the bus, and just don't look.
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