Back in July of 2020, at the height of the COVID-19 pandemic, Chen Ohana had moved into a housing unit in Ashkelon. During her move, she discovered that she had contracted COVID. She requested to be evacuated to a quarantine hotel in Jerusalem, and to avoid infecting others, she was told to call a private ambulance service hired by the state called “Ambulance Alpha.” 

Ohana, who was 30 years old at the time, arrived at the ambulance with a suitcase. At that time, two other COVID-19 patients were in the ambulance, including a religious man, and the driver refused to allow her on board because of what he called her “revealing” clothing. She was wearing shorts and a tank top. Despite her offers to cover up, the driver left her behind. 

Over the last five years, with legal representation from NIF grantee the Israel Women’s Network (IWN), Ohana has been locked in a legal battle with the ambulance company…and she just won her case! The court ruled in her favor and ordered Alpha Ambulance to pay 120,000 shekels ($33,700) in damages—the maximum allowed by law. It ruled that the company committed sexual harassment and discrimination when it refused to transport Chen. “I wanted them to learn a lesson,” she told the news website N12, “you don’t take a woman off an ambulance just because she’s wearing shorts.”

In this precedent-setting ruling, the court explicitly recognized that denying service to a woman based on her clothing constitutes sexual harassment.