The eight-year-old girl called a whore by Israel's Jewish religious hardliners

A frightened eight-year-old Jewish girl has been called a 'whore' and spat on as she walked to school through an ultra-orthodox settlement in Israel.

Naama Margolese has become a symbol in Israel for the growing abuse of women and young girls by Jewish extremists.

Even though she is religious herself, and wears long sleeves and a skirt, she is deemed not to be religious enough by the zealots in Beit Shemesh, about 11 miles west of Jerusalem.

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Speaking out: Naama Margolese, eight, said she was too scared to walk to school after being spat on and verbally abused by ultra-Orthodox Jewish men

An Israeli cabinet minister described the men responsible as ‘criminals and psychopaths’.

Ultra-Orthodox Jews are Israel's fastest growing sector. In the past, they have confined their strict lifestyle to their own neighbourhoods.

But they have become increasingly aggressive in trying to impose their ways on others. They even campaigned against a sign for a women’s clinic, saying the use of the word ‘women’ in public was ‘immodest’.

It was a realisation of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's fears over the actions of ultra-Orthodox groups, as the girl spoke out on a damning report broadcast on Friday.

The blue-eyed child told Israel's most popular weekend news show that she was spat on and verbally abused by ultra-Orthodox men who thought she was immodestly dressed.

They wanted her 'to dress like a Haredi', she explained - the Hebrew term for strict, black-coated Jews who are in 'awe' of God.



'I'm afraid I might get hurt or something,' she added.



Naama's mother Hadassa, an American immigrant who dresses in headscarf and skirt out of respect for Jewish tradition, said the abuse included spitting, cries of 'whores' and 'bastards' and being told to 'clear out of here'.



'If that's what happens now, and they [the authorities] don't do anything, what will happen in another few years?' she said on Israel's Army Radio yesterday. 'This is a terrorist group.'

While his conservative government insists such incidents are rare in a mostly secular country, Mr Netanyahu's many statements on the issue reflect concern about widening religious and political divisions in Israel.



Vilified: Naama with her mother Hadassa, an American immigrant, who says she and her daughter have been called 'whores' and 'bastards' and told to 'clear off'

'In a Western, liberal democracy, the public realm is open and safe for all, men and women both, and neither harassment nor discrimination have any place there,' he told his cabinet.



Mr Netanyahu said he had ordered law enforcement authorities to crack down on 'whoever spits, whoever lifts a hand [in violence], whoever harasses' and to remove street signs segregating men from women in some ultra-Orthodox districts.



His statement appeared to have been prompted by an expose on Israel's top-rated weekend news show about intra-Jewish friction in Beit Shemesh, a town of about 87,000 people near Jerusalem.



A Channel Two television crew that returned to Beit Shemesh on Sunday - two days after the broadcast - was mobbed by ultra-Orthodox Jews who stoned their car, injured a reporter and stole equipment, police said.



Worried: Benjamin Netanyahu has made repeated statements on the actions of ultra-Orthodox Jews, as the Israeli Prime Minister becomes increasingly concerned over religious divisions in the country

The crew was rescued by police, who said they were questioning suspected assailants.

Separately, police said they had arrested a Beit Shemesh man for spitting at a woman, and that he could face assault charges.



In Friday's report, Channel Two showed a Beit Shemesh street sign instructing women to keep to one side, away from a synagogue. Several ultra-Orthodox men who agreed to be interviewed attempted to justify their treatment of women.



Israeli media have debated the impact of religious gender segregation on public transport and the conscript army, where some pious troops ostracise female instructors and singers.

They are worried it could lead to protests across the country.

The ultra-Orthodox make up only about ten per cent of Israel's population of 7.7million. But their high birthrates and bloc voting patterns have helped them secure welfare benefits and wider influence.



One of Mr Netanyahu's biggest partners in the coalition government, Shas, is a party run by rabbis.



According to Channel Two, its Beit Shemesh story has generated momentum for a demonstration against ultra-Orthodox coercion in the town, scheduled for Tuesday.



Moshe Abutbol, the Shas mayor of Beit Shemesh, put the number of townspeople involved in the abuse at between 20 and 50.



Like Israeli commandos who disguise themselves as Arabs for missions in Palestinian areas, the police have officers who work undercover among the ultra-Orthodox. Israeli television showed them raiding a religious protest in Jerusalem on December 17.



Mr Netanyahu has also condemned radical Jews behind a spree of vandalism against Palestinian property and Israeli garrisons in the occupied West Bank, attacks designed to bog down government moves to raze settlements built without a permit.



'Beit Shemesh shocked Netanyahu not because of new facts but because of old facts that were recounted by a lovely little blonde-haired girl with blue eyes,' said Nahum Barnea, senior commentator for the biggest-selling newspaper Yedioth Ahronoth.



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