A haredi youth was beaten by an Egged bus driver during a trip from Jerusalem to Tiberias last Thursday night.
The incident, which took place on an Egged 959 line bus, began when the victim, Urel Finch, and two friends played music on a portable speaker system.
Video recordings of the latter portion of the incident show the driver attempting to beat Finch and chasing him through the Tiberias central bus station.
“During the whole trip we were enjoying some music on a speaker I brought from home. The music was turned down very, very low and there were hardly any other passengers besides us,” said Finch.
“Then suddenly the driver stopped on the side of the road, got up and came towards me and attacked me and tried to take the speaker. Only after I told him that I would report him to the police did he stop.”
But, according to Finch, the story didn’t end there. When the bus pulled into the central bus station in Tiberias, the driver renewed his harassment of Finch and his companions.
“As we got off of the bus he cursed me and my friends, and at that point I couldn’t hold back any more, and I muttered in response ‘your mother’.
Then the driver lost it. he hit me and started to chase after me. Even when we were about to leave the bus station and the driver was already back in his bus, he came out, picked up a rock and threatened to throw it at us. At the end of the incident we called the police.”
Finch says he intends to file a formal complaint over the incident.
An Egged spokesperson responded to the incident saying “Without knowing the background of what was filmed, there is no question that this is a highly unusual and very serious matter.
I suggest the victim file a police report so that they [the police] can conduct an investigation, or alternatively he may file a complaint with Egged so that the company’s enforcement apparatus can deal with the matter.
In any event, Egged will not accept such unusual and serious incidents like the one seen in the video. As of yet no complaint has been filed by the victim with either Egged or the police.”
