Shlomo Fuchs
Shlomo FuchsIsrael news photo: Flash 90

Shlomo Fuchs, a hareidi-religious man who allegedly called a female soldier "harlot" Wednesday when she refused to move to the "women's section" of the bus, was charged with sexual harassment Thursday. 

Sexual harassment, which entered the Israeli law book in 1998, generally refers to sexual gestures or overtures made toward another person, when the other person showed that he was not interested in them. However, it also defines harassment as "a demeaning or humiliating remark made toward a person because of his sex or sexuality."

Police reportedly awaited Fuchs at a bus station a short time after the soldier called them. Charges, too, were filed in record time – just 24 hours after the incident took place on the 49a bus that passes through Neveh Yaakov, an increasingly haredi neighborhood. A resident of the neighborhood told Arutz Sheva that the line was established by the Egged  company specifically to serve the hareidi population and that it goes from the hareidi Kamnitz section of the neighborhood directly to Bar Ilan street and Geula – stopping only at haredi concentrations. 

Some soldiers who serve at Central Command, which is located in Ramat Eshkol, use the bus too "in order to save time," but they have always been respectful of the hareidim, he said.

A report on Rotter.net said that the soldier, Doron Matalon, shared a story on her Facebook page about a woman who provoked hareidim on a bus and wrote "hahaha… that is my idea." This happened shortly before she gained fame on the 49a bus. 

L. Fuchs, wife of Shlomo, told Arutz Sheva that her husband has been under arrest since the run-in with Matalon. "Involved people who spoke to me told me that the police are making every effort to keep him under arrest. I am a mother of 12 children, and since yesterday they have taken away their father. I am in great stress…"