Segregated Buses * Israel - Driving critics to court

Religious rules keep women in back seats

Jerusalem,Israel -The Chicago Tribune (Chicago,Ill,USA), by Joel Greenberg -February 28, 2008: -- On six public bus lines in this city, the sexes are separated. Women board at the rear door and sit in the back. Men get on and sit in the front... The segregated lines, operated by Egged, Israel's main bus company, link neighborhoods of ultra-Orthodox Jews and accommodate demands of the strictly religious for separate seating of men and women... Twenty-three other intercity lines, similarly segregated, serve cities and towns that have substantial ultra-Orthodox populations. In many cases they are the only direct lines between those communities, running at reduced fares... (Video from YouTube, by mysticgeek -February 25, 2007: "Israel busing - modesty patrol-modestly dressed can ride". Israel Egged bus. ultra-orthodox religious laws women passengers would only be allowed to board buses if they are modestly dressed, drivers would not be allowed to air secular radio stations, and "non-kosher,"..A woman who reported being attacked by an ad-hoc modesty patrol aboard a Jerusalem bus has submitted an affidavit describing the incident as part of a petition to the High Court of Justice regarding the legality of sex-segregated bus lines)



* Government to rule as Dan moves to cancel Shabbat bus services

Tel Aviv,Israel -Haaretz, by Shahar Ilan -28 Feb 2008: -- The Ministry of Transportation will today decide whether to approve the Dan bus company's request to discontinue its services on Saturday afternoons, a decision that one secular MK called a sign of "creeping religious coercion"... Dan, which operates numerous bus lines in the Tel Aviv area, currently runs a number that start at 4:00 P.M. on Saturdays, before the end of the Jewish Sabbath when most public transportation is suspended... Its decision to postpone the start of its service on Saturdays to 6:00 P.M. during the winter and 9:00 P.M. in the summer - after the Sabbath ends - was announced over the past few days in notices put up at the company's stations...