A Jerusalem taxi company located in Zichron Moshe tried to attract more chareidi riders, paying for an ad on the ‘144’ (directory information) website stating the company, Jerusalem Taxi, only employs Jewish drivers and does not operate on Shabbos.
A supervisor for the taxi company told Walla News this is not really so, but the company simply keeps the Arab drivers away from the chareidi areas in the hope of boosting business in those same areas. It appears that in actuality, the taxi company hires any qualified driver, Jew or non-Jew, including Arabs, Bedouins, and Druse.
Bezeq, which operates the website, told Walla the ad was taken down immediately because it will not tolerate a racist ad, as explained in the company’s guidelines. Bezeq explains that since customers can load the ad on their own, there are cases, such as this, that when the site is monitored an ad will be removed, as was done here.
After the ad was removed, the taxi company changed its name to Kikar Shabbos Taxi. When Chadrei Chareidim tried speaking with management, the message was a bit different than the one given to Walla, telling them the taxi company is chareidi owned and most of the drivers are chareidim, while there are a few who are only traditional.
Yechezkel, a dispatcher at the company, told Chadrei Chareidim “I don’t know Walla and everything written there is simply a lie. We do not have a single Arab driver. Anyone writing anything different is simply writing a lie and guilty of loshon hora”.
(YWN – Israel Desk, Jerusalem)
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5 Responses
I understand that to the outside world this ad sounds racist, but when you’ve heard many stories (directly from the ones it happens to) about dangerous events with Arab drivers, it makes sense to want to avoid them and it is not driven by racism.
The Arab community complains about stereotyping them and about restrictions placed upon them, but they negate that the public is just reacting in a logical response to the dangers that they themselves have created. The reason why whenever a potential terrorist attack happens anywhere in the world peoples reactions are “It’s the Arabs” is in fact precisely because the vast majority of attacks are perpetrated by them.
Chazal state not to pity the wicked.
Arab taxi drivers aren’t only a security risk. Arabs are known for molesting women and children. So why should one take a chance with an Arab driver? To earn points with Hillary and O’bama?
If you don’t see a plaque (with a company name) in the front window as they approach, it’s almost always an arab cab, so don’t even bother putting your hand up to call them.
Even WITH a plaque, one should ALWAYS look to see who is behind the wheel before entering the taxi.
If you have to wave them off after they slow down for you, then you DO it, and if they don’t like it – too bad!
Better safe than sorry!
His looks alone will not give him away. Even speaking with him to confirm he is jewish does not always work. There are even arab drivers who have obtained signs from ‘jewish only’ taxi companies that have closed a few years back. The only foolproof way is to hail a taxi from a current ‘jewish only’ taxi company. There are plenty.
I use taxis quite often – both in E”Y and in the UK.
I had Arab taxi drivers a couple of times, including one particularly religious Muslim who drove me to work three times (by coincidence). All I have used were very polite and nice people, without anything negative.
(Which I cannot say about some Jewish taxi drivers. I have had a few very negative experiences as well – all of which were with Jewish drivers.)
All of this “Jews-only” nonsense is racist and completely unfounded. We should live in peace and we should judge people by how they behave – not by their names, religion or looks.
I think we, as Jews, are supposed to be above such behavior, morally. Whoever disagrees, feel free to do so.