A crowd of ultra-Orthodox chase two military women on the outskirts of Tel Aviv

Two Israeli military women were persecuted this Sunday by a crowd of ultra-Orthodox people in the town of Bnei Brak, on the outskirts of Tel Aviv, and had to be evacuated by police in an incident that has been widely condemned by the Israeli political class.

The two soldiers belonged to the Education and Youth Corps and had traveled to this ultra-Orthodox majority town for a visit when the incident occurred, in which several dozen men began to run towards them, visibly angry, according to a video posted on social networks.

Rioters have overturned trash cans, burned a motorcycle and overturned a police vehicle. The Police have assured that the situation is now under control and that the two soldiers have been able to be evacuated.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has expressed his “strong condemnation” of what happened. “It is an extremist minority that does not represent the haredi” or ultra-Orthodox community as a whole, he argued, according to the Israeli press.

Netanyahu has stated that this is “a serious issue” and “unacceptable.” “We are not going to allow anarchy. We are not going to tolerate any aggression against personnel of the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) or against security forces that work with dedication and determination,” he stressed.

The Israeli Armed Forces have also “strongly” condemned the attack and have recalled that the two soldiers were “carrying out a military mission.” “An aggression by civilians against IDF soldiers is a red line and those responsible must be treated harshly,” said the Chief of the General Staff of the Armed Forces, Eyal Zamir.

The Minister of Defense, Israel Katz, and the Minister of National Security, Itamar Ben Gvir, have spoken along the same lines, stressing that those responsible for the “criminal and unforgivable” attack “will pay a high price.” However, they do not represent the “vast majority of haredis.” Ben Gvir has indicated that a police officer is injured, but no arrests have been made.

The opposition has also condemned this action and has urged the ultra-Orthodox deputies to do the same. “Who does Netanyahu care more about, our soldiers or his coalition partners?” said opposition leader Yair Lapid.

“There must be a wave of arrests in the next few hours. It cannot be that in the State of Israel IDF soldiers and police officers are attacked. Anyone who participated in the attack against our soldiers must end the day in prison. Enough of anarchy,” he declared.

For the leader of Blue and White, Benny Gantz, the military and police “were attacked as if it were Jenin”, which represents a “moral minimum that has nothing to do with Judaism.”

“There is a campaign against women in the public sphere (…). They are not Jews. They are terrorists,” said the leader of the Yisrael Beitenu party, Avigdor Liberman. Former Prime Minister Naftali Bennett has also criticized that “a red line has been crossed” and has promised to “return good governance to Israel.”

The ultra-Orthodox community is up in arms against the Government for its intention to promote a law that allows their recruitment to carry out the two-year mandatory military service from which until now they were exempt for religious reasons. They especially criticize the recruitment of women due to the misogynistic traditions of part of this community.