There was a report of a bus driver who was attacked with rocks and beaten, a driver on a 133 bus line in the Maale Adumim district.
Additional information furnished by police in the case included a correction, and the attack occurred at Bar Ilan Junction near Shmuel HaNavi in Yerushalayim, not Maale Adumim. The driver, an Arab, was attacked by Jews who wanted to get off the bus between stops and when the driver refused, the assault began.
The boys got into an altercation, leading to the driver using pepper spray and the youths attacking him as they fled the scene. The driver did chase after the fleeing youths for a brief period, then returning to the bus.
B’chasdei Hashem no one was seriously injured in the attack, which led to a two-hour strike of bus service to areas in northern Jerusalem, as the bus line heads to the Givat Ze’ev neighborhood.
Egged officials responded, announcing there have been “hundreds of attacks” against drivers in the past year and the number is increasing, citing the situation is intolerable and authorities must do something to protect bus drivers.
(YWN Israel Desk – Jerusalem)
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4 Responses
The 133 doesn’t go to maale adumim it goes to Givat Zeev.
Who wrote this?!?!? Who did not proofread this! Whoa!!!!
So, if no one is checking, what is the veracity of the story at all? I am upset to think Jewish Yoofs attacked an Arab bus driver – bad move, indeed. But something called sensationalist journalism seems to have turned what I hope is a minor tussle into a violent ATTACK. Again, I hope not. Facts, anyone?
Terrible chilul Hashem to attack a bus driver for not stopping. Buses aren’t allowed to stop on unauthorized bus stops.
I don’t know why, but in my experience many of the Arab bus drivers have attitudes. Knowing this, I would not be surprised if the following scenario is what occurred:
The boys rang the bell for their stop. The bus driver, for whatever reason, was distracted and bypassed their stop. The boys ran over to him complaining that he bypassed their stop and requested for him to stop the bus and let them off.
The bus driver, being arrogant and not wanting to admit that it was his fault, threw the blame on them claiming that they didn’t ring on time and that they would have to wait for the next bus stop (which I imagine, on that route, was quite a distance). The boys probably then got into a heated debate with the bus driver and after tension rose and wrath kicked in they resorted to physical violence. Who through the first swings, the boys or the bus driver, is anyone’s guess.
I’m not justifying anyone’s actions here, just trying to bring out the most likely scenario.
Side issue: In a day and age when Palestinian terrorist attacks are a real threat, for the life of me, I can’t understand why Palestinians are allowed to drive bus routes that are packed only with Jews. There are several buses, for instance, that travel over a bridge that is about 1000 feet high. An Arab bus driver could easily drive his bus over the side of the bridge killing upwards to 50 Jews (a heroic act in their eyes) . Unfortunately, nothing will change until such a horrific thing happens.