Woman Beaten For Not Moving To The Back Of The Bus

[The Mad Monk]

Woman beaten on Jerusalem bus for refusing to move to rear seat
By Daphna Berman

A woman who reported a vicious attack by an ad-hoc "modesty patrol" on a Jerusalem bus last month is now lining up support for her case and may be included in a petition to the High Court of Justice over the legality of sex-segregated buses.

Miriam Shear says she was traveling to pray at the Western Wall in Jerusalem's Old City early on November 24 when a group of ultra-Orthodox (Haredi) men attacked her for refusing to move to the back of the Egged No. 2 bus. She is now in touch with several legal advocacy and women's organizations, and at the same time, waiting for the police to apprehend her attackers.

In her first interview since the incident, Shear says that on the bus three weeks ago, she was slapped, kicked, punched and pushed by a group of men who demanded that she sit in the back of the bus with the other women. The bus driver, in response to a media inquiry, denied that violence was used against her, but Shear's account has been substantiated by an unrelated eyewitness on the bus who confirmed that she sustained an unprovoked "severe beating."

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Shear, an American-Israeli woman who currently lives in Canada, says that on a recent five-week vacation to Israel, she rode the bus daily to the Old City to pray at sunrise. Though not defined by Egged as a sex-segregated "mehadrin" bus, women usually sit in the back, while men sit in the front, as a matter of custom.

"Every two or three days, someone would tell me to sit in the back, sometimes politely and sometimes not," she recalled this week in a telephone interview. "I was always polite and said 'No. This is not a synagogue. I am not going to sit in the back.'"

But Shear, a 50-year-old religious woman, says that on the morning of the 24th, a man got onto the bus and demanded her seat - even though there were a number of other seats available in the front of the bus.

"I said, I'm not moving and he said, 'I'm not asking you, I'm telling you.' Then he spat in my face and at that point, I was in high adrenaline mode and called him a son-of-a-*****, which I am not proud of. Then I spat back. At that point, he pushed me down and people on the bus were screaming that I was crazy. Four men surrounded me and slapped my face, punched me in the chest, pulled at my clothes, beat me, kicked me. My snood [hair covering] came off. I was fighting back and kicked one of the men in his privates. I will never forget the look on his face."

Shear says that when she bent down in the aisle to retrieve her hair covering, "one of the men kicked me in the face. Thank God he missed my eye. I got up and punched him. I said, 'I want my hair covering back' but he wouldn't give it to me, so I took his black hat and threw it in the aisle."

'Stupid American'

Throughout the encounter, Shear says the bus driver "did nothing." The other passengers, she says, blamed her for not moving to the back of the bus and called her a "stupid American with no sechel [common sense.] People blamed me for not knowing my place and not going to the back of the bus where I belong."

According to Yehoshua Meyer, the eyewitness to the incident, Shear's account is entirely accurate. "I saw everything," he said. "Someone got on the bus and demanded that she go to the back, but she didn't agree. She was badly beaten and her whole body sustained hits and kicks. She tried to fight back and no one would help her. I tried to help, but someone was stopping me from getting up. My phone's battery was dead, so I couldn't call the police. I yelled for the bus driver to stop. He stopped once, but he didn't do anything. When we finally got to the Kotel [Western Wall], she was beaten badly and I helped her go to the police."

Shear says that when she first started riding the No. 2 line, she did not even know that it was sometimes sex-segregated. She also says that sitting in the front is simply more comfortable. "I'm a 50-year-old woman and I don't like to sit in the back. I'm dressed appropriately and I was on a public bus."

"It is very dangerous for a group of people to take control over a public entity and enforce their will without going through due process," she said. "Even if they [Haredim who want a segregated bus] are a majority - and I don't think they are - they have options available. They can petition Egged or hire their own private line. But as long as it's a public bus, I don't care if there are 500 people telling me where to sit. I can sit wherever I want and so can anyone else."

Meyer says that throughout the incident, the other passengers blamed Shear for not sitting in the back. "They'll probably claim that she attacked them first, but that's totally untrue. She was abused terribly, and I've never seen anything like it."

Word of Shear's story traveled quickly after she forwarded an e-mail detailing her experience. She has been contacted by a number of groups, including Shatil, the New Israel Fund's Empowerment and Training Center for Social Change; Kolech, a religious women's forum; the Israel Religious Action Center (IRAC), the legal advocacy arm of the local Reform movement; and the Jewish Orthodox Feminist Alliance (JOFA).

In the coming month, IRAC will be submitting a petition to the High Court of Justice against the Transportation Ministry over the issue of segregated Egged buses. IRAC attorney Orly Erez-Likhovski is in touch with Shear and is considering including her in the petition.

Although the No. 2 Jerusalem bus where the incident occurred is not actually defined as a mehadrin line, Erez-Likhovski says that Shear's story is further proof that the issue requires legal clarification. About 30 Egged buses are designated as mehadrin, mostly on inter-city lines, but they are not marked to indicate this. "There's no way to identify a mehadrin bus, which in itself is a problem," she said.

"Theoretically, a person can sit wherever they want, even on a mehadrin line, but we're seeing that people are enforcing [the gender segregation] even on non-mehadrin lines and that's the part of the danger," she said.

On a mehadrin bus, women enter and exit through the rear door, and the seats from the rear door back are generally considered the "women's section." A child is usually sent forward to pay the driver.

The official responses

In a response from Egged, the bus driver denied that Shear was physically attacked in any way.

"In a thorough inquiry that we conducted, we found that the bus driver does not confirm that any violence was used against the complainant," Egged spokesman Ron Ratner wrote.

"According to the driver, once he saw that there was a crowd gathering around her, he stopped the bus and went to check what was going on. He clarified to the passengers that the bus was not a mehadrin line and that all passengers on the line are permitted to sit wherever they want on the bus. After making sure that the passengers returned to their seats, he continued driving."

The Egged response also noted that their drivers "are not able and are not authorized to supervise the behavior of the passengers in all situations."

Ministry of Transportation spokesperson Avner Ovadia said in response that the mehadrin lines are "the result of agreements reached between Egged and Haredi bodies" and are therefore unconnected to the ministry.

A spokesperson for the Jerusalem police said the case is still under investigation.

http://haaretz.com/hasen/pages/ShArt...&contrassID=19

Gah.

[Barnabas]

Put a rabbinic curse on her!

[KrazyHorse]

Religion

[lord of the mark]

"According to the driver, once he saw that there was a crowd gathering around her, he stopped the bus and went to check what was going on. He clarified to the passengers that the bus was not a mehadrin line and that all passengers on the line are permitted to sit wherever they want on the bus. After making sure that the passengers returned to their seats, he continued driving.""

Egged bus drivers



"Shear, an American-Israeli woman who currently lives in Canada, says that on a recent five-week vacation to Israel, she rode the bus daily to the Old City to pray at sunrise."

praying in the Old City at sunrise
Religion when its not hijacked by some silly folks
Chassidim who dont quite understand what "chillul hashem" means


"Word of Shear's story traveled quickly after she forwarded an e-mail detailing her experience. She has been contacted by a number of groups, including Shatil, the New Israel Fund's Empowerment and Training Center for Social Change; Kolech, a religious women's forum; the Israel Religious Action Center (IRAC), the legal advocacy arm of the local Reform movement; and the Jewish Orthodox Feminist Alliance (JOFA)."

Jewish tendency to organize
The Jewish Orthodox Feminist Alliance

[Zkribbler]

I want to personally thank all the heroic men on that bus who saw a woman being beaten by a bunch of men and who did nothing.

[Lorizael]

I had no idea this sort of situation existed in Israel.

[KrazyHorse]

Originally posted by Zkribbler
I want to personally thank all the heroic men on that bus who saw a woman being beaten by a bunch of men and who did nothing.

Just what I was thinking.

When I read the story it sounded like it would have been a good excuse to go knock some heads.

Fistfights on a moving bus are fun, but I've only been in one.

[KrazyHorse]

Fighting a Haredi Jew would be surreal.

[Cyclotron]

"I was fighting back and kicked one of the men in his privates. I will never forget the look on his face."

Taste the fury, a**holes.

[Winston]

That's horrible.

Still, if she'd taken a bus here in Copenhagen she'd have run a severe risk of being verbally abused, harrassed, spat at and beaten simply on account of her religion, if she showed it openly. That's how bad it has gotten for the small Jewish minority, who have been living peacefully among the rest of the population for over 300 years, right up until the recent mass immigration of Muslims, according to a feature article in my paper the other day.

Jewish people cannot wear the Star of David on a neck chain or the traditional cap in public in Copenhagen anymore, they have to take special precautions when entering or leaving the Synagoge in central Copenhagen, and there have been examples of Jewish educators being advised by school authorities not to seek employment at inner Copenhagen schools where the percentage of Muslim immigrant children run in the 80s and 90s.

This is sheer madness, but it's the actual state of affairs in Copenhagen in 2006.

[KrazyHorse]

Horseshit.

[lord of the mark]

Originally posted by KrazyHorse
Fighting a Haredi Jew would be surreal.

My understanding is that internecine fights (generally rare) usually involve some combination of shoving and beard pulling.

[Imran Siddiqui]

Wow... that's messed up. But good for her for fighting back

[Dinner]

Religious fundimentalists suck the world over. Send them to a Siberian reeducation camp and don't give them any blankets.

[lord of the mark]

Originally posted by Lorizael
I had no idea this sort of situation existed in Israel.

gender segregated buses? Its a recent thing, IIUC, as Egged (the bus cooperative - socialism in action) has accommodated an ultra-O clientele (market socialism in action) by providing so called "mehadrin" ('strict") lines that serve haredi areas. The issue here was that this was NOT a mehadrin line, but apparently was being treated informally as one, and so Ms Shear quite properly objected. The beating thing is new, which is why it made the paper - and of course its disputed by the driver, but then he has reason to lie, since he is very much at fault if he let this go on.

Market Socialism

[Lorizael]

I'm not really sure socialism can be blamed here, but rather religious fundamentalism. While this socialist bus line may be new, I would imagine that the sentiment amongst the Haredi is not.

[KrazyHorse]

Originally posted by lord of the mark


My understanding is that internecine fights (generally rare) usually involve some combination of shoving and beard pulling.

Luckily I don't have a beard and would choose not to take advantage of that weakness...

[lord of the mark]

Originally posted by Lorizael
I'm not really sure socialism can be blamed here, but rather religious fundamentalism. While this socialist bus line may be new, I would imagine that the sentiment amongst the Haredi is not.

the company isnt new, it goes back to the 1930s. the other main bus company in Israel, Dan, was also a coop, but is now a private company, IIUC.

My point wasnt to blame socialism, but to show that the establishment of gender segregated lines is simply a response to consumer demand. Its not part of our culture, and I dont like it, but its hardly preventing women from getting around. What was IMPROPER here was the use of violence to enforce gender segregation that wasnt authorized. And of course its chillul hashem - a profanation of the name - IE an act that brings the Jewish religion into disrepute, and so is a major sin, above and beyond the substantive wrong. SOME haredim arent too good about things like this, and the community in Mea Shearim and neighboring parts of Jerusalem is particularly bad (it should be noted that they were there before the Zionists came, and some of them think theyd be better off with an Islamist state)

[KrazyHorse]

What was IMPROPER here was the use of violence to enforce gender segregation that wasnt authorized

It is improper either to use violence to enforce gender segregation or to attempt to enforce gender segregation when it wasn't authorised.

I don't think you disagree with that; I just wanted to point out that what you said could be interpreted differently.

[General Ludd]

Muslims Jews.

[Verto]

Jewish tendency to organize and kill Gentiles
Jewish tendency to organize and defend a 50 year old woman

Oh, wait.

Coward J00z

Backwards religion

[Verto]

Originally posted by lord of the mark


the company isnt new, it goes back to the 1930s. the other main bus company in Israel, Dan, was also a coop, but is now a private company, IIUC.

My point wasnt to blame socialism, but to show that the establishment of gender segregated lines is simply a response to consumer demand. Its not part of our culture, and I dont like it, but its hardly preventing women from getting around. What was IMPROPER here was the use of violence to enforce gender segregation that wasnt authorized. And of course its chillul hashem - a profanation of the name - IE an act that brings the Jewish religion into disrepute, and so is a major sin, above and beyond the substantive wrong. SOME haredim arent too good about things like this, and the community in Mea Shearim and neighboring parts of Jerusalem is particularly bad (it should be noted that they were there before the Zionists came, and some of them think theyd be better off with an Islamist state)

What is IMPROPER here is for gender segregation to be allowed in the first place, you dumb*ss.

[KrazyHorse]

For some reason I see Haredi Jews fighting Matrix-style.

[Dis]

Originally posted by Verto


What is IMPROPER here is for gender segregation to be allowed in the first place, you dumb*ss.

[lord of the mark]

Originally posted by Verto


What is IMPROPER here is for gender segregation to be allowed in the first place, you dumb*ss.

by a private company? Somebody better tell the folks at Curves to shut down their gyms (and yes, I know the issue of natural monopolies in public transit comes up, but I doubt the existing Mehadrin lines are difficult to avoid) Look, they have a different culture. than we do. Than 90% of Israelis do. Theyre ALLOWED to have a different culture.

[lord of the mark]

Originally posted by KrazyHorse

What was IMPROPER here was the use of violence to enforce gender segregation that wasnt authorized

It is improper either to use violence to enforce gender segregation or to attempt to enforce gender segregation when it wasn't authorised.

I don't think you disagree with that; I just wanted to point out that what you said could be interpreted differently.

I didnt state it that way, cause if it was a mehadrin line, and a person refused to obey the gender seg that was a condition of riding, he or she would be subject I presume to being removed without their consent, and while it doesnt thrill me that the Mehadrin lines exist, and i dont know enough about Israeli transit franchise law to know the extent that the State is implicated in their existence, I wouldnt count that in the same category as the incident in the OP.

[Verto]

Originally posted by lord of the mark


by a private company? Somebody better tell the folks at Curves to shut down their gyms (and yes, I know the issue of natural monopolies in public transit comes up, but I doubt the existing Mehadrin lines are difficult to avoid) Look, they have a different culture. than we do. Than 90% of Israelis do. Theyre ALLOWED to have a different culture.

Where's the huge uproar over the persecution of Jews?

[Zkribbler]

Originally posted by Winston
That's horrible.

Still, if she'd taken a bus here in Copenhagen she'd have run a severe risk of being verbally abused, harrassed, spat at and beaten simply on account of her religion, if she showed it openly. That's how bad it has gotten for the small Jewish minority, who have been living peacefully among the rest of the population for over 300 years, right up until the recent mass immigration of Muslims, according to a feature article in my paper the other day.

Jewish people cannot wear the Star of David on a neck chain or the traditional cap in public in Copenhagen anymore, they have to take special precautions when entering or leaving the Synagoge in central Copenhagen, and there have been examples of Jewish educators being advised by school authorities not to seek employment at inner Copenhagen schools where the percentage of Muslim immigrant children run in the 80s and 90s.

This is sheer madness, but it's the actual state of affairs in Copenhagen in 2006.

Looks like the King has again put on the Star of David and ride out of the palace like when the Nazis took over.

[lord of the mark]

Originally posted by Verto
Jewish tendency to organize and defend a 50 year old woman

That wasnt organized,it was a mob, in essence. I was referring to the various groups that have reached out to help this woman (and which are presumably vieing for the opportunity to take her case to Israeli court)

Oh, wait.

Coward J00z

Lovely.

Backwards religion

Obviusly I see Hassidism as in some sense backward, or I wouldnt be a Conservative Jew instead. Personally I dont think this is so much a religious imperative (theres certainly no halacha - jewish religious law - supporting it) Gender seg is more a social custom of the most conservative groups - and IMHO even most of those who defend the social custom, would denounce such violence.

[lord of the mark]

Originally posted by Verto


Where's the huge uproar over the persecution of Jews?

Er did you miss that several orgs took her case, and that there was a newspaper article about it. Its still not clear what happened.