Recordings released by Israel's Channel 14 show Hadera Magistrate's Court Judge Yifat Unger-Biton making remarks toward Chareidi witnesses that they characterized as dismissive and insulting during court proceedings.
In one recorded exchange, the judge tells a witness, "Sir, you speak at lightning speed. I'm saying that you're used to going into tefillos at the shul and finishing them very quickly. You race through the prayers at a crazy pace. Nobody besides you can even understand the prayers... But here we speak slowly. We need to understand what you're saying."
In a separate instance from the same case, the judge refers to a document brought by another witness, saying, "Is this your affidavit? This tzetel (Yiddish for 'note') that you brought with you?" The witness responded, "You call it a tzetel, but for us it's a significant document."
The two witnesses filed a complaint with Israel's Commissioner for Complaints Against Judges, Justice Asher Kula, asserting that the judge's language demonstrated bias against Chareidim and their religious practices while undermining public confidence in judicial impartiality.
Judge Unger-Biton acknowledged in her response that her word choice may have been poor but stated she intended no offense. She said she was attempting to use language the witnesses would understand and apologized for her remarks.
Justice Kula closed the complaint following his review. In his decision, he noted that "even if the judge's explanations are correct... a judge must always be careful with his or her words and pay attention to how they may be perceived from an objective standpoint. The judge did the right thing by apologizing in her response for her remarks to the witnesses."
The report indicated this was not the first instance of scrutiny involving the judge's recorded courtroom comments, with another recording from 2019 drawing public attention.
The Judicial Authority's spokesperson stated, "In her response to the Commissioner for Complaints Against Judges, the judge apologized for her remarks, and the commissioner determined that the matter had been fully addressed."