Facts: Egged wanted official segregation, not the Ultra-Orthodox

The Israeli and International media featured articles of religious Jews who supposedly try to impose their lifestyle on the Israeli society by enforcing sex-segregation on busses. All the stories miss crucial background and current facts. Here are some important omissions.

Egged, not Haredim, fought for segregation on public busses

The Sex-segregated Mehadrin line is not an ultra-orthodox initiative. To the contrary: it was opposed by the Haredim, who operated private bus lines – under the Darka Achrina label - for passengers adhering to their customs. The official bus company, Egged, fought to close these lines, by competing through their own Mehadrin bus lines.

According to the AP, Israel’s Israel's two chief rabbis “proposed private bus lines as a substitute.”

Great news for them: this was in fact the case, but Egged forced them out from business.

They wouldn’t impose their customs on anybody, if not for Egged. The greedy bus company is to blame, not the Haredim, who’d gladly allow the Egged passengers to ride as they wish.

Passengers describe provocation by singing; Men wanted to leave the bus and waited for fare stamp

All the articles I saw, reported one side of the story, without a hint of even trying to locate the other side. This is typical when the Ultra-Orthodox are the subjects. So, can we find the other side of the story? Actually his story is public, but no one picked it up: The following are parts of the account of the passenger who created the storm, as reported on the JDN Hebrew blog.

Passengers tried to ask the woman politely to move to the women section. She responded by taking out a camera and exclaiming “I will make you an interesting trip! I will sing you solo!” This was a clear provocation, since religious Jews refrain from listening to women singing.

She than start to rant obscenity, and the religious passengers asked the driver to open the door for them to leave the bus. This caused a delay; since the driver had to sign their fare ticket so they can take the next bus free of charge.  The driver, meanwhile, summoned the policed to calm the unruly passenger. The reports that the passengers stopped the bus are false.

The passenger states that he sent the details to the media, and attached his contact information, but no one attempted to contact him. Why should they? This may kill a sensational story. Who will hold them to account for besmirching the Haredim without corroborating the story? Madam Secretary Clinton is anyway on their side.