Talmid yeshiva Orel Finish spoke to Kikar News, explaining last week he was assaulted by an Egged bus driver.

According to his report, he was on a bus together with a number of other bochrim, traveling from Yerushalayim to Tiveria, simply wishing to ‘chill out’ at the Kinneret on erev Shabbos. “I sat in the front and they were a bit behind me. We began listening to chassidish music. Everyone appeared to be enjoying it and the driver did not say anything.

“He suddenly stopped [the bus] and jumped on my friend and tried taking the radio. My friend threatened to call police and the driver began arguing. Police did not arrive and the driver continued driving. We arrived at the Tiveria Central Bus Station and the driver stopped suddenly so I would fall”.

“We got off together via the rear door as the driver cursed us, words that we cannot repeat. I responded ‘your mother’ without going further. Suddenly he shouted ‘your mother’. He got off the bus and punched me and wanted to continue striking me. I ran. He ran after us as he raised a stone in his hand to throw at us.

“I think it is terrible behavior towards chareidi passengers. Even if he had complaints regarding the music, or he thought we created a disturbance, he could have told us nicely. In my life I never thought an Egged driver would act like this, raising his hands at us. I do not know if this is because he is an Arab or became I am chareidi. We saw the hate in his eyes. I expect Egged will accept responsibility and suspend him”.

Egged spokesman for the chareidi community Aryeh Frenkel responded to Kikar News saying “Without getting into the matter and without knowing the background to what is seen in the video, and despite the fact what is seen represents only part of the incident, there is no doubt this was a serious incident. We offered to the victim to file a police complaint to permit an examination into what occurred or alternatively, filing a complaint with Egged to permit to probe what occurred. Whatever the case, Egged will not tolerate such instances of the seriousness seen in the video”.

Watch video!

(YWN – Israel Desk, Jerusalem)