The Transportation Ministry delivered the conclusions of the committee report on gender-segregated public bus-lines, known as 'Mehadrin' buses, to the High Court of Justice Tuesday morning.
According to the report, the segregation itself is not legal, but passengers may voluntarily segregate themselves if they so chose.
The High Court of Justice held a hearing on Tuesday on a petition demanding that the government conduct a comprehensive study of the objective need for segregated buses in the haredi sector.
On the eve of the hearing, Transportation Minister Yisrael Katz informed the court that he had only received the report earlier that day and did not want to release it until he'd had time to study it.
Originally, the court ordered the ministry to prepare the report by July 20, 2008. However, the ministry kept asking for postponements.
Finally, the court set the date for the hearing on October 27, 2009, and the state announced that the report would be completed by mid-October.
The petitioners include Jerusalem-based author Naomi Ragen and the Israel Religious Action Center of the Progressive Movement. In the petition they wrote that the public bus companies operated segregated buses "in which the women are required to enter from the back door and sit in the back of the bus, while the men enter from the front doors and sit in front. Furthermore, the women are required to dress modestly. Women who oppose the arrangements that are imposed upon them and try to resist like the petitioners are humiliated and suffer from verbal harassment and threats of violence or are thrown off the bus."
Read more at Jerusalem Post.
Babushka would not choose to ride on one of these buses, and they should not be operated by the public transportation ministry. However, Naomi Ragen's cynical attempt to portray herself as some kind of Rosa Parks and Joan of Arc should not be taken seriously. She is a publicity-hungry author of mediocre romance novels, in which Haredi Jews are portrayed in the most ridiculous and grotesque stereotypes, including the idiotic "hole in the sheet" myth.
In Montgomery, Alabama of the 1950's, all of the buses were segregated, and a Black person had to give up a seat to a white person if the "Whites Only" section was full. This is not the case in Jerusalem, where 95% of the buses, including the bus lines which run through Mea Shearim, are open seating.
If some people demand "mehadrin" buses with segregated seating, these vehicles should be privately funded, distinctly marked, at separate bus stops, boarded only by passengers who have purchased tickets from designated kiosks.
What is Naomi Ragen doing riding the bus anyway? Chauffeur's day off?
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