Justice urges seculars to 'take over' haredi lines
Retired Supreme Court Justice Dorner tells Tel Aviv University students Egged must provide alternative for segregated bus lines in Jerusalem. 'Segregation is humiliating, it's like the separation between blacks and white,' she states
Retired Supreme Court Justice Dalia Dorner suggested on Monday that secular passengers start riding haredi bus lines en masse to counter the gender segregation advocated by the ultra-Orthodox.
In a conference at Tel Aviv University, Dorner said that this was not a matter for the High Court of Justice, and that the court was unlikely to address the issue.
The public Egged bus company operates special "mehadrin" lines on which men and women are required to sit separately. Dorner insisted that Egged must provide an alternative for secular passengers who wish to ride these lines but are opposed to segregation.
In a conversation with Ynet, Dorner stressed that the proposed move was not meant as an act of defiance against the religious administration, but rather as means to exert pressure on the transportation minister and the Egged bus company to operate complimentary lines for the non-religious public.
"These arrangements should not be forced on the general population," she explained.
Dorner told students that young Jerusalemites should actively protest the segregated lines by using these buses more and disregarding the modesty codes practiced on them.
"Segregation… undermines human dignity and is humiliating, it's like the separation between blacks and white," she stated. "If you, the young people. Don't fight for equality, there will be no equality, because the haredi sector is very dominant and is fighting for its rights."
