Actually I do not know if the decision will be today, but the court hearing for the status of the mehadrin bus lines is going to be today.
To remind you, after a number of instances in which violence was used to "enforce" the status of mehadrin buses, sometimes it was used even on non-mehadrin lines, a group of women led by Naomi Ragen and Miriam Shear filed suit to declare the mehadrin bus lines illegal as being discriminatory and promoting inequality among the sexes.
The hearing is set for today. I think they will come to a settlement of some sort, as the state will do everything in its power to not get involved in what many will call anti-religious activities, by canceling all mehadrin lines, which is really the only legal decision the courts can take.
If they get canceled, I will shed no tears. I have no problem with communities that so desire to establish such lines. The problem is when they over step their boundaries and try to force it on other people. They used violence and in the process shot themselves in the foot. So, they made their beds and now might have to end up sleeping in them.
We are waiting to see what the courts do...
They'll probably riot again, but it will be an interesting situation if they forbid the mehadrin buses because of these actions.
ReplyDeletegood punishment for them if you ask me. wonder what will happen.
Did you see Yated Neeman this week? A reader wrote about the "siyut" (nightmare) he suffers every time he has to ride a regular bus. He mentioned the radio, seeing and jostling women, and sitting behind modestly dressed women and being exposed to their conversations.
ReplyDeletei saw that letter. and the interesting thing about it is how he describes that when he used to take the regular "chiloni" bus and then switch to a "frum" bus (i.e. a regular egged bus running in a religious neighbourhood) he felt so comfortable on the regular frum bus. but now that he takes a "mehadrin" separate seating bus - now the "regular frum bus (that a few lines back he mentioned how great it was) doesn't compare to the mehadrin he has his "siyut" and we should fight to make it also mehadrin, blah, blah.
ReplyDeleteit makes you wonder....
I won't be shedding tears either. Its starting a trend of violence that mustn't get further into people's veins.
ReplyDeleteI did not see it. any way you can scan it and email it to me?
ReplyDeleteGood grief. They started as a nice enough idea, but attacking people is just going too far. At the same time, outlawing them doesn't seem quite the solution either.
ReplyDeleteAny update?
ReplyDeleteIsn't it amazing that people are arguing that one group, based on their gender, should have to sit in the back of the bus. Is there an Israeli Martin Luther King?
the only update I saw is that they had the hearing. The court gave the Ministry of Transportation I think a week to review the information and respond. I think they are going to hand down a decision next week.
ReplyDelete