From the Liveblog of
Tuesday, March 17, 2026
Democrats party distances itself from activist’s AI video removing religious MKs’ headscarves
Add ToI as a Preferred Source on GoogleSam Sokol is a former political correspondent at The Times of Israel. He was previously a reporter for the Jerusalem Post, Jewish Telegraphic Agency and Haaretz. He is the author of "Putin’s Hybrid War and the Jews"
Yair Golan’s The Democrats party distances itself from left-wing atheist activist Naor Narkis after a series of social media posts in which he criticized married Orthodox women for wearing traditional head coverings.
In an AI-generated video prominently featuring The Democrats party logo posted on Monday, Narkis portrayed several religious politicians, including Settlements and National Projects Minister Orit Strock and Otzma Yehudit MK Limor Son Har-Melech removing their headscarves and letting down their hair, likening hair covering to “religious coercion.”
“Raise your voice for the freedom of Israel’s women,” Narkis wrote in English.
In a subsequent post this morning, Narkis asks why it is okay for the Israeli government to push for removing head coverings in Iran but it is not okay for The Democrats to do so in Israel.
The party says that the video “has no connection to us.”
Narkis founded a movement in 2024 called Hozrim Betvuna (“Returning to Reason”) whose self-stated goal is to provide information to “help those who wish to leave the ultra-Orthodox world.” He said in 2025 that he was considering a run for office in the 2026 national elections with The Democrats.
In his video, Narkis was likely riffing off a previous AI-generated video posted by Science and Technology Minister Gila Gamliel, calling for the “freedom of Iran’s women,” in which women could be seen removing hijabs to reveal Gamliel herself, Sara Netanyahu and Melania Trump.
The Israel Women’s Network condemns Narkis’s “difficult and unpleasant video,” which it says “illustrates how vulnerable women are in the age of AI.”
“Israeli Knesset members and ministers are exposed to public criticism every day, which is of course legitimate, but the criticism should be about what they do, not how they look. Undressing women using editing software is not criticism,” and expresses only “humiliation, belittling and contempt,” the group argues.
National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir also slams the video, “in which artificial intelligence technology is used to humiliate and objectify religious Knesset members and ministers by removing their head coverings.”
“This is a grave, shameful and unrestrained act that borders on sexual harassment,” he says, calling it hypocritical and falsely accusing women’s rights groups of staying silent.
The Times of Israel Community.