Tourist stop in northern Israel pays damages for prohibiting women on cable car
A tour guide brought a group of tourists to visit Manara Cliff in June 2018 but was not allowed to board two female tourists in his group on a cable car because haredi men refused to sit with them.
By TAMAR URIEL-BEERIManara Cliff, Kiryat Shmona(photo credit: Wikimedia Commons)
A cable car station Manara Cliff, a hiking spot in the northern city of Kiryat Shmona, paid damages after a video revealed that the operator did not let two women onto a car that was filled with haredi men, according to the Israel Religious Action Center (IRAC).A tour guide brought a group of tourists to visit Manara Cliff in June 2018 and, at one point of the trip, waited with two female tourists from his group to go down the cliff in a cable car.When it arrived, however, the operator only allowed the men in line behind Jamie and the two tourists to board. The operator said that there were haredi men demanding a cable car with no women."So there is room for a number of people, but you won't let them on because they are women, right?" the tour guide, Jamie Selter, asked the operator in a video clip released by IRAC."There are people there, but they have a problem getting on with girls because they are religious, they won't get on with girls," said the operator in response.The tour guide, in response, spoke with IRAC, which in turn assigned him one of their attorneys, Meital Arbel, who filed a petition on his behalf in November of 2018 against Manara Cliff.An agreement was reached almost one year later, in October of this year, that requires Manara Cliff to "provide equal and respectful service to all visitors, without descrimination," according to a press release by IRAC.In addition, Manara Cliff will be paying the tour guide NIS 10,000 in damages."It’s about time that business owners understand that exclusion of women is illegal and is not worth it," said IRAC Executive Director Anat Hoffman. "With the help of people like Jamie, [the tour guide,] who witnessed discrimination and refused to allow it become the norm, we will continue to fight to preserve equality in the public domain.”
