Bus companies face 3 lawsuits over series of discriminatory incidents against women
Egged, Electra-Afikim and Nateev Express are each being sued after drivers allegedly harassed or discriminated against female passengers
Several girls and young women are filing lawsuits against bus companies after a series of separate recent incidents in which they claim they were discriminated against.
According to the local Haifa branch of the Ynet news site, a 14-year-old girl is suing the semi-private Egged for NIS 271,500 ($72,000) on charges that she was harassed and discriminated against when she boarded a bus in the city due to her outfit.
The lawsuit filed in the Haifa Magistrate’s Court claims that the teenager got on a 76 bus line in the city wearing shorts and a strapless top over a bathing suit. The driver allegedly asked her: “Do you have anything [else] to put on,” and then told her that if an inspector came she could be fined for her clothing choice.
“It was mortifying… the whole bus looked at me, it was embarrassing, I didn’t know what to do,” the teenager told Channel 12 news on Sunday. “Since then I’ve been barely taking buses, I just don’t want anyone to say anything to me. If I do, I get on via the back door.”
In a statement, Egged said that it had immediately launched an inquiry into the incident once a complaint was made, and that the lawsuit “will be handled and addressed in court.”
The news of the lawsuit comes amid a series of similar incidents in recent weeks that have made national headlines, in which women and girls have been told to sit in the back of the bus, told to cover up, or refused boarding due to the sensitivities of religious male passengers.
Such incidents are not rare, but have created a firestorm in recent weeks as many people have sought to tie the incidents to the current right-wing religious government. Similar occurrences have happened on a regular basis for many years, without always making national news.
The lawsuit filed by the family of the 14-year-old from Haifa joins at least two other similar suits in recent weeks. According to Channel 12 news, Hila Peleg, a 21-year-old from Ashdod, is suing the Electra-Afikim bus company after she was refused boarding on an 85 line bus in the city, and was told by the driver that the bus was only for men.
In addition, the family members of a group of young women who were told to sit in the back of the bus and cover their outfits with blankets on an 885 bus line from Ashdod to Safed have also chosen to sue the Nateev Express bus company over the incident.
In response to the occurrence, Nateev Express issued a statement saying that the company “takes seriously and condemns any exclusion [of others] in the public space.” The company said the driver in question was employed by one of its subcontractors, and “acted contrary to the clear instructions of the company, the Transportation Ministry and the law.”
Nateev Express added that the driver has been suspended and the company apologized to the young women and instructed all its subcontractors “to refresh their drivers on the law and the Transportation Ministry instructions which bar such behavior.”
Last week, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu publicly condemned the series of incidents. In a terse statement, Netanyahu called for anyone who discriminates against passengers on public transportation to be punished.
“The State of Israel is a free country, in which nobody will set limits on who can use public transportation, and in which nobody will dictate where he or she will sit,” he said. “Those who do this are breaking the law and should be punished.”
Transportation Minister Miri Regev, a member of Netanyahu’s Likud party, similarly vowed no tolerance for the phenomenon, saying any case of discrimination against female riders should be dealt with “severely.”
Separately Sunday, extremist Haredim set fire to the tires of four buses on a street in Jerusalem in protest of the ads with photos of women that were on the sides of the bus. Extremist members of the ultra-Orthodox community defacing images of women in public areas is another common phenomenon in recent years.
