In a new decree against the Chareidi sector and weakest sectors of Israeli society, Finance Minister Avigdor Lieberman and Transportation Minister Merav Michaeli are formulating a plan to abolish the existing discounts on public transportation in Chareidi centers and the periphery, leading to a sharp rise in bus fares.
According to a report in The Marker, the plan replaces the dozens of fares available today to only three fares: city, intercity, and regional, sharply increasing the cost of public transportation in many Chareidi cities, as well as in other cities which have special agreements with the government, such as Tiveria, Ofakim, Kiryat Gat, Rechovot, Ramla, and Afula,
The 50% discount for passengers who have reached retirement age may also be canceled, but in order to prevent a public outcry, Israelis age 75 and over may be allowed to travel for free.
The remaining existing discounts for the blind, disabled, students, Social Security beneficiaries, children and adolescents – will remain unchanged.
Following the report on Wednesday, UTJ MK Uri Maklev slammed the plan, saying: “Under the guise of ‘streamlining and reducing tariffs,’ the finance and transportation ministers are cruel to families from weaker sectors.”
(YWN Israel Desk – Jerusalem)
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9 Responses
You just wrote that the charedi sector is the weakest sector of Israeli scosiety – by which you confirmed all of Leibermans accusations against them.
Supporting your family is a chiyuv, intentionaly living off other people’s money is absolutely assur. What is the point of learning Torah if you don’t keep one of the most basic holochos in it?
Carving out special discounts for certain neighborhoods or certain segments of society is both inefficient and inequitable. Establish a uniform fare structure based on cost-of-service and let the government subsidize those in need directly. Special discounted fares for Ungarishe seniors living in BB on days we say Tachnun etc. is a third-world type of economic mismanagement. Either make services free and increase taxes or price them based on cost.
Maybe stop the attacks on train tracks, stations, busses by chareidim so the government will have revenue remaining to provide cheaper transport. We all know damage was done by people in our community in Yerushalaim and Bnei break. there’s no excuse for that kind of behavior and I did anyone offering to pay for it.
lieberman and michaeli have obviously forgotten what happened to then prime minister sharon when he started up with the jews and the chareidim. Maybe he should be reminded!
YIDDEN are rachmonim, baishonim, and gomlei chasodim
Well, one area in which Leiberman far outshines Bennet is constistency and remaining true to his constituency.
All the cities mentioned as having special agreements with the government have relatively small chareidi populations compared to the non chareidi population.
What was not mentioned is the reason WHY these agreements are in place.
It has to do with the size of the city.
In Yerushalayim you pay around 6 shekel or so for 1.5 hours of bus riding. Depending on where you are going, you might end up even paying twice because of the size and the amount of time it takes to get around. Afula, by comparison, though not a small town, can be travelled end to end in less than 30 minutes. Why would somebody pay the same price? Running a bus service is still expensive so the government subsidizes the fare to make sure that the city can afford public transportation. Lieberman knows a bit of economics. He knows that the chareidim will continue to rely on the buses anyway and will end up paying more. The rest of society, whos overall reliance on cars tends to be higher than their reliance on public transport, will just take the car more often.
It’s the same reason why the bus companies use different buses on the lines that run through exclusively chareidi neighborhoods than they do through areas that have fewer chareidim. If your alternative is a car, you’re less likely to board a bus that hasn’t been cleaned in a while, has less room to sit, has faulty a/c in the summer, etc. If you don’t have a car, or you can’t fit your entire family in that car, you’re going to be stuck on that poorly-kept bus whether you like it or not.
> Mindful
> “by which you confirmed all of Leibermans accusations against them.”
Not true.
What it actually confirms is that artificially constructed roadblocks were created to block Hareidim from working. As one example, no one is legally allowed to work without having first gone through the military system (some exceptions for medical or professional reasons or age). The military itself is designed to be anti-Hareidi. So in order to be legally allowed to work, one has to be suibjected to a most brutal anti-Hareidi.
How is this rasha allowed to get away with such blatant discrimination & incitement to hatred through speech and action? aren’t there laws against antisemitism in this country?