M., a teenage girl, was attacked by a group of young yeshiva students on a Ganey Tikva street on Sunday. According to the teen, the reason was her physical appearance, which alludes to her sexual orientation .
M, 17, was walking down the street in the central Israeli city – a route she said she has been taking regularly over the past two years – when she was mobbed and assaulted.
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"It was the middle of the afternoon," she told Ynet on Tuesday. "I was wearing my headphones and I passed a bus stop for yeshiva boys .There was a small group there. I passed them by and a few seconds later I started hearing yelling.
"I took my headphones off and turned around, and realized that they were shouting at me. They were yelling 'lesbian' and 'is it a boy or a girl?' and then they started throwing rocks at me. Once they saw I was hurt they ran away. I didn't chase them – I just got out of there."
M. and her mother filed a police complaint shortly thereafter.
"I was shocked. I never thought something like this could happen. I pass through this neighborhood every day. I did nothing provocative – it's not like I was wearing the rainbow flag on my back. I was minding my own business. I wasn’t bothering anyone.
"Why did they mob me? They were judging me based on my appearance – and they were right, the way I look isn't misleading – but the fact that a woman has a short hairdo doesn't mean anything. I'm not active anywhere, they couldn’t have recognized me from anywhere. It was all about the way I look."
The stones hurled at M. hit her face, bruising her. "My mother is livid. She insisted that we file a complaint with the police and make this incident public. She's right. This is 2013 – these things shouldn’t happen."
The incident, she added, will not scare her into changing her routine. "I'm a little scared but I'll walk through there again. I see no reason not to. They shouldn’t affect my life in any way."
The police confirmed that a complaint was filed, saying that the matter was under investigation.