Mark Kravitz
Passenger claims harassment due to religious observance
Security guard lashed out at kippah-wearing passenger over good morning greeting. 'I was humiliated', says passenger. 'No need to blow things out of proportion,' says security company manager
Mark Kravitz, 30, was verbally assaulted by a security guard at Haifa's central bus station Tuesday, just for wearing a kippah.
Kravitz entered the bus station, as he does every morning, to get on the bus which takes him to work. This morning, however, he failed to greet the security guard.
As Kravitz was hurrying through the metal detector, he did not remove his earphone, thus missing the guard's "good morning".
"All of a sudden I see him outraged and I hear him yelling and cursing," Kravitz told Ynet. "I took the earphones off and he kept on yelling 'you're all draft dodgers, you all refuse orders, that's the kind of education your stinking rabbis give you. I hate that you're living in my country.'"
Kravitz tried to calm the security guard down to no avail. "Everyone was looking at us. It was humiliating. I served in the Armor Corps and I'm a reservist. I don't deserve to be treated like this just for missing a 'good morning'."
Twice offended
When Kravitz finally arrived at his office, he called Danor, the security guard's employer, to complain. "Their representative tried to apologize and told me they were very sorry and that it wasn't the security guard's place to re-educate me."That remark was offensive as well," said Kravitz, adding "is there something wrong with me, that I need to be re-educated?"
Kravitz attributed the security guard's behavior to his wearing a kippah. "I know he must have heard about Hebron and the insubordination incident on the news, and it must have ticked him off, but how is that may fault?"
He himself assumed that if he were called upon to evacuate settlers, chances are he would have refused as well. "The military should be protecting people, not doing police work and evicting them," he said.
Shimon Levy, director of Danor Security told Ynet the company apologized before to Kravitz: "We have no problem with him wearing a kippah. As far as we know, the passenger exchanged words with the guard, but no one raised their voice and no one swore… there's no need to get carried away. He felt he was wronged and we apologized. There no need to blow this out of proportion."
