The No-Decision Of Mehadrin Bus Lines

I would be remiss if I did not write about the recent court decision regarding mehadrin bus lines, even though it happened when I was offline on Thursday.

The courts finally came to a decision, after a long period of deliberations and listening to arguments, regarding the legality of mehadrin bus lines. The decision is that mehadrin bus lines can continue to operate as a voluntary arrangement. Egged (or other bus companies) will have to post signs in the relevant buses stating that the bus is mehadrin and men are requested to sit in front and women in back, and that nobody can be The Mechitza: Maintaining the Sanctity of the Synagogueforced to do so. The  ministry will then allow a trial basis for 30 days to ensure that there is no coercion taking place and things are operating well. if all goes well, they will finalize the decision and make it a permanent arrangement.

What's funny is that every side is seeing this as a victory, which I guess is good. The kannoi-haredi community that pushed this sees it as a validation that the State supports their desire to have separation. The opponents see it as a victory that the courts said it is voluntary and if not it will be canceled.

What is a shame is that this was presented as a fight between haredi and conservative movements. Many haredim do not support this arrangement, but with the fight being waged by the Conservative Moevment, they have no choice but to support the separation. There was an article the other day I saw about the haredi reps having said "off the record" that despite the victory in court they regret that this battle was brought public and fought, as it only harms the interests of the haredi community and that is why they kept a  very low profile and never spoke about it publicly, and only certain reps assisted on it.

An issue raised was that women, even secular, support separation because in times of overcrowding buses there is very inappropriate contact between genders, due to the crowds. That really is a problem, but the solution should have been limiting (and there are limits already in place, they just need to be reinforced) how many people can be on a bus and not let it get so crowded that people are smashed up against each other. Even without the groping and touching, that type of mass crowding should not be allowed to happen. It is dangerous and disgusting, even when men are rubbing up against men, with no women in the picture.

What I see from this case is that the court took the easy way out. Everybody feels like a winner, but no real decision was made. On any bus in the country nobody is telling anybody where to sit. If women wish to sit in the back, nobody is stopping them. To not allow mehadirn bus lines, what would the courts have said - women are not allowed to sit in the back of the bus? People can sit where they want, and if a community commonly gets on the buses and the men go to the front and women to the back, they can sit where they want, and they have always been able to.

With the system voluntary alone, if they sit separately and I get on the bus I can choose to sit in the front or the back, depending on wherever I feel like sitting, and nobody can tell me otherwise, just like the courts cannot tell the women to sit in the front.

To support mehadrin bus lines, they would have had to allow a certain level of "coercion", which they did not do. To oppose mehadrin they would have had to say women must sit in the front with men and men in back with women, which is ridiculous. Their decision is basically a no-decision allowing people to choose where to sit, just like on any other bus in the country.