Yuval Morgenstern, a media consultant who lives in Leshem, Samaria, filed a suit against a business for discriminating against a client living in Judea and Samaria two months after the law came into effect prohibiting businesses from discriminating against customers due to their place of residence.
The suit was filed against Hot Mobile, from which Morgenstern ordered a SIM card that was not delivered to him. "Throughout the process of joining the operation, there was no stated restriction regarding customer's place of residence or a warning that sending a SIM card is not provided to certain areas," his statement of claim notes.
According to the Israel Hayom report, four days after joining, Morgenstern discovered the courier company with which Hot Mobile works does not serve his community. Hot Mobile's representative told him the delivery company comes to Ariel, and he was offered to retrieve the card from there. Morgenstern canceled the agreement and decided to file a NIS 20,000 claim.
Hot Mobile said in response: "Hot Mobile operates according to the law and provides service to its customers throughout the country. We have not yet received the statement of claim."
Jewish Home Chairwoman MK Shuli Mualem-Refaeli, who championed the law forbidding businesses to discriminate against clients because of their place of residence, said "customers living in Judea and Samaria who made deals after May of this year and the truth that they will not receive equal service because they live there was withheld from them, can and should file a claim against the merchant.
"The legislative change I brought contains three choices: Be clear about service policy and lose customers, or maintain a covert discriminatory policy and risk prosecution, or do the right thing: Simply provide equal service to everyone," Mualem said.