Ultra-Orthodox Break Windows After Woman Refuses To Go to Back of Bus
Image by haaretz
Ultra-Orthodox protesters attacked and damaged three buses in the Jerusalem neighborhood of Beit Shemesh on Wednesday, after a female traveling on one of the buses refused a Haredi passenger’s order to move to the back and sit separately from the men.
Following her refusal, demonstrators blocked the path of the bus and smashed its windshield, then targeted two other buses nearby. Police were summoned to the site.
An eyewitness passenger said that the No. 417 bus from Ramat Beit Shemesh to Jerusalem was packed when he got on the bus, due to the summer vacation. When the driver pulled up to one of the Beit Shemesh stops, he said, four men in ultra-Orthodox garb blocked the bus and began striking at its windshield with a hammer. The other passengers were frightened, the witness said, adding that there were babies on board at the time.
Police detained two people for questioning in the wake of the incident: the man who ordered the woman to move to the back of the bus, and a female passenger who tried to obstruct police from arresting the suspect.
For more go to Haaretz
A message from our CEO & publisher Rachel Fishman Feddersen
I hope you appreciated this article. Before you go, I’d like to ask you to please support the Forward’s award-winning, nonprofit journalism during this critical time.
At a time when other newsrooms are closing or cutting back, the Forward has removed its paywall and invested additional resources to report on the ground from Israel and around the U.S. on the impact of the war, rising antisemitism and polarized discourse.
Readers like you make it all possible. Support our work by becoming a Forward Member and connect with our journalism and your community.
— Rachel Fishman Feddersen, Publisher and CEO
