As a part of our orientation this week, we participated in a program called "ירושלים שלי" or "My Jerusalem." The point of this program was to meet new Israelis and gain a new perspective of Jerusalem, based on their lives and passions. The program that I chose to do was with a woman by the name of Noa Sattath, who is the director of IRAC (Israeli Religious Action Center), as well as a student in the Israeli Rabbinic program at HUC in Jerusalem. IRAC is the, "public and legal advocacy arm of the Reform Movement in Israel...with the goals of advancing pluralism in Israeli society and defending the freedoms of conscience, faith, and religion." As a part of that, IRAC advocates for a great deal of issues including, but not limited to: conversion, marriage, divorce, segregation, gender discrimination and racism.
The focus of the program today was on segregation, and more specifically, the issue of public buses that are segregated. When most people hear of the word segregation today, their minds usually jump to the civil rights movement of the 1960's in the United States. While this was definitely one time in which segregation occurred, and in which people fought tooth and nail for their civil rights, this is not quite the same thing as what is occurring in Israel. In Israel, there is a large gender bias against women, mostly within the ultra-orthodox communities. These are communities in which men dominate almost every sphere of existence. Some of this has to do with commandments from the Torah (613 to be exact) that command both men and women to do certain things, but the list of commandments for men is significantly longer than that of the women. These communities have pushed it so far to create what they deem "Modesty Buses," but, the rest of the world would see these as segregated buses.
Think of a normal city bus that has two entrances, one in the front and one about 2/3 of the way to the back of the bus. In any normal situation, one might assume that everyone would enter from the front of the bus, if for no other reason than the bus driver has to make sure that everyone has paid their fare. However, this is not the case of these "Modesty Buses." In these buses, the men enter from the front, while the women enter from the back. Prior to 2011, these specific bus lines, the women were only allowed to sit in the back of the bus, and were not able to move up to the front of the bus if there was no space available. This was the case, not only for inter-city buses, but for intra-city buses that were segregated as well. Women were having to stand at the back of the bus for as long as 3 or 4 hours because they were not permitted to sit in the front of the bus, where there were plenty of spaces. The idea of these segregated buses began in the 1990s, and by 2009 there were approximately 55 bus lines that were officially segregated. In 2011, the Israeli Supreme Court ruled that separate but equal was not equal, and therefore, "A public transportation operator, like any other person, does not have the right to order, request or tell women where they may sit simply because they are women." In addition to ordering the desegregation of all buses, Egged (the public bus company) was mandated by the Israeli Supreme Court to take out adds in all of the newspapers stating that the official policy of the company was that women could sit wherever they like on the bus, and that they cannot be asked to move based on their gender. Interestingly, but not surprisingly, many of the Hareidi (ultra-orthodox) newspapers refused to place these ads in their newspapers, and when they finally did, they also published disclaimers under these ads that the buses should still remain segregated. Furthermore, all of the buses now have signs stating that paying patrons of the bus can sit anywhere they like, and cannot be asked to move based on their gender.
Today, a group of about 10 classmates of mine boarded a bus that is still known to be segregated. This bus line begins in the area of Ramot, which is an ultra-orthodox community, and continues through both mixed communities (where both secular and religious Jews live) as well as communities where only the ultra-orthodox live.
All of us boarded the bus from the front and stood at the front of the bus. While there were seats available, these were seats in which sets of two were facing each other, and there were religious men sitting on one side of them. Out of respect for the fact that it would have been nearly impossible to sit down without accidentally touching them (one of the laws that they follow prohibits men and women from touching each other). However, we all stood at the front of the bus. We were a group of mixed men and women who were all dressed modestly, but that clearly did not belong in the community. One of the men spoke to us and asked that all of the women move to the back of the bus. Noa clearly told him that we had all paid to be on the bus, and that legally we have a right to stand or sit wherever we like. The man persisted, but we did not move. In the end, the man got off of the bus at the next stop, presumably because he was upset at the fact that there were many women at the front of the bus. We then moved to the middle of the bus so that we had a better view of both the front and back of the bus. There were a few interesting things that I noted while on the bus:
1.) There were men that chose not to get on the bus because there was no room at the front of the bus and they did not want to be in the back of the bus (where there was plenty of room, by the way) because that is where all of the women were.
2.) All of the men were required to pay their bus fare when they entered from the front of the bus.
3.) There was a hold puncher next to the second door (what the bus drivers use to mark the 10 ride punch cards that most people purchase) so that the women could punch their own card and not have to walk through the men to the front of the bus.
4.) The great majority of women who entered from the back of the bus did not punch their cards, or make an effort to go to the front of the bus to pay for their ride. Some of these women do have monthly passes that they purchased, but those women generally made an effort to show the bus driver this upon entering the bus. They did this by holding it up high, and because of mirrors that are set up in the bus, the bus driver was able to see this. Interestingly enough, I did see one woman get on the bus who had a cartesia (punch card) in which all 10 spots had already been used. In an effort to assuage her guilt, she used the hold puncher to punch a hole in the middle of her card instead of actually paying for her bus ride.
5.) The ultra-orthodox community is has the highest usage of the public bus system. Because Egged continues to make so much money from them, they do not enforce the fact that many of the women do not pay for their bus rides.
This was, personally, a very enlightening experience for me. In this day and age, I hope to not ever have to experience what segregated public transportation is like in the United states. However, it is something that people experience on an everyday basis here. I was somewhat disappointing in myself that I did not take more of an initiative to engage in dialogue with the people on the bus, or to make more of an effort to take a seat at the front of the bus. Most of this was done out of respect to the men who were already seated, as I explained above. I would like to think that in situations like this I would be able to stand up for what I believe and vocalize this to anyone who has a dissenting opinion. I know that even in entering the bus from the front, and in standing towards the front of the bus for the entirety of the ride, we did make a statement, however small it might be. My hope for the future would be that when situations like this arise, either at home or half-way across the world, that we are all able to stand up for what we believe in, and are able to peacefully fight for the causes which we so strongly believe in.
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