A spike in violence against bus drivers in Jerusalem sheds light on the challenges and the opportunities to overcome divisions in the working class and to strengthen the unions in Israel.
There are several bus lines serving the Jerusalem area and at least 60% of the drivers are Arabs, mostly residents of East Jerusalem, Yaniv Bar Ilan told the Militant by phone Nov. 10. He is a spokesperson for Koach LaOvdim (Power to the Workers), one of the three main union federations in Israel.
In one recent two-day period there were nine attacks on bus drivers. Many were by young fans of Beitar Jerusalem, a soccer team. One of Beitar’s fan clubs, La Familia, is notorious for its racist attitude and treatment of Arab citizens and residents of Israel.
After their team lost a match, the fans attacked and vandalized a Superbus vehicle, even though it had a Jewish driver and fare inspector, while shouting “Death to Arabs.”
In another incident, some young ultra-Orthodox Jews known as Haredim, attacked buses after a protest against laws that would end their exemption from the draft.
“They came to my bus and started to curse at me, call me a ‘terrorist’ and spit on me,” driver Abu Zina told the Times of Israel. He saw the youth trash another bus nearby, although they didn’t injure its Jewish driver.
But Abu Zina was attacked. They “took the fire extinguisher and used it on me” and slammed a door into his leg.
When an older Haredi man intervened, telling the youths to get off the bus and leave the driver alone, the attack ended. “It’s clear that racism is involved,” Bar Ilan said.
And the government isn’t doing enough to confront the problem, he said. “There is a plan for a special unit of police on bikes that could get immediately to the sites of such attacks,” but the plan has not been carried out. Police rarely arrest the attackers when they are Jewish. And the official in charge of the transportation ministry has done nothing to confront it.
“Most of the Jewish drivers condemn these attacks,” Bar Ilan said. The bus drivers are in three different unions — Koach LaOvdim, the Histadrut, or Histadrut Leumit — depending on which bus line they work for. All three unions organize both Jewish and Arab workers.
“I talked to one of the Jewish drivers who is a fan of Beitar Jerusalem,” Bar Ilan said. “He agreed the attacks and the chants of ‘Death to Arabs’ were despicable.”