The incident in question took place in August 2018 at a New Pharm pharmacy, the chain that has since rebranded as Be and is now owned by Shufersal, though it had not yet been acquired by the supermarket giant. At the time, the customer, who is named Isabel, insisted that she be referred to as a woman. However, the pharmacist insisted on using male-gendered language and outright calling her a man, according to Globes.
In a recorded dialogue transcript shown in the court and reported on by Ynet, Isabel had approached the pharmacist and asked that she be referred to as a woman, and did not understand why she was being misgendered. The pharmacist said that she "knew [Isabel] was a man because of their voice." Although the pharmacist's manager took Isabel's side, the pharmacist refused to listen and continued to misgender her.
In the ruling, the judge ruled that this constituted defamation, noting that Isabel wore women's clothing and used female-gendered pronouns and conjugation. "Isabel left no room for doubt her desire to be addressed as a woman, as well as the harm experienced due to the pharmacist's insistence on addressing her as a man," the judge said, according to Globes.
This is despite Shufersal's original argument that the pharmacist's actions did not constitute defamation because biologically, Isabel is still a man and that, as they put it, humans should be defined by their biological sex rather than what they choose to identify as, and it should therefore have been protected, as something that is true cannot constitute slander, Ynet reported.
The financial daily reported that Shufersal was required to pay Isabel a total of NIS 32,500 ($9,912), with NIS 25,000 being compensation and an additional NIS 7,500 in legal fees.