Court awards girl NIS 13,000 over bus segregation suit
Bus company fined after driver fails to enforce rules prohibiting women from being forced to sit in back of bus
Stuart Winer is a breaking news editor at The Times of Israel.
A young girl who was forced to sit at the back of the bus at the demand of two ultra-Orthodox men was awarded NIS 13,000 in compensation, Army Radio reported on Wednesday.
The incident occurred on a bus operated by the Superbus company in Beit Shemesh. Two ultra-Orthodox men forced the girl to move to a seat at the rear of the bus in order to physically separate men from women.
The company was ordered to pay the fine after the presiding judge ruled that gender separation on a public bus is illegal and it is the responsibility of the driver to prevent segregation on the vehicle.
Beit Shemesh has become a hotbed of extremist ultra-Orthodox activity as fringe groups try to enforce strict modesty laws on other residents of the city. Last month, a woman was attacked in her car by ultra-Orthodox men as she drove through the city.
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