Kol hakavod to the Haredi soldiers, you deserve better! I believe you and I don't believe a word Egged says. They don't even reply to complaint letters unless a newspaper or TV show is behind it.

service than ANYONE else. They should stand up for their rights and not bow down to religious people who will not pick up a rifle. I support religious people but this shames the Orthodox and makes them less worthy than secular.

sounds strange. I ride the 36 kosher mehedrin bus in Jerusalem almost daily and never saw any incidents. Once a super religious man in the first seat actually got up and gave an elderly WOMAN his seat! most drivers are not religious and really don't care much except driving safely and getting a pay check. Most drivers are curtious and follow Egged's guidelines. But anything could happen.

Without soldiers we would have no country

Simply because there is no interpretation, even 'strict' that would make anyone feel they need to pressure the drivers into not picking them up. I think finding more about these soldiers may reveal the true reasons for the complaint. I would be very suprised to find they do not have an agenda.

religious people.

Also we are not told if the soldiers in question were perhaps of the female gender, and horrors, wearing trousers? Even so, our soldiers are forbidden to hitch hike because a very real danger of kidnap, so all buses should be required by law to transport them.

from seculars against haredim

Normal reporters would report the name of the soldiers and the time including date of the incident. They would interview the driver and give his or her response (including name) Makes you wonder if the incident occurred at all. After all the driver if he is Jewish would be a IDF veteran.

If these stories were ficticious why would Egged give a careful reply to each complaint. It woulpd seem the drivers confirmed the details

The driver is under ultra charidi pressure .

If they were female and wearing trousers they could hardly claim to be Charedi, could they. Your Charedi-hatred stops you from reading what is in frontvof your eyes

Yes, and Eggeds careful reply was the alleged reason was fictitious

Even if this a private line it operates on government funded inrastructure.

I have a better solution to all this that will put Israel's state budget in the black, solve problems like the one shown in this article and improve the overall social health of the country: the next Egged buses arriving in Haredi neighborhoods should take them on a one way trip to Gaza. Since they don't want to serve, hate the IDF, Hate the State of Israel, are loath to work, produce nothing of any real economic value, while at the same time living parasitic fashion off the state, producing more of themselves while making bogus claims about studying Torah and such, I suggest Gaza as a home where they should fit in and be happy. We could also tell Putin in Russia that unless he starts getting tougher with Iran, that we'll figure out a way to ship the Haredim back to Russia or the surrounding countries that were and will eventually become part of greater Russia anyways.

Haredi...One must ransack history to find a more pwerful CULT. With the Jonestown cult, for example, the leader gave some 700+ cult members cyanide- laced kool-aid which they drank and of course perished. With the Haredi CULT, their toxicity poisons the entire nation. The strength of their toxicity is awe-inspiring but as with the Jonestown cult, the gullibility of the victims must also be factored into the equation.

... then these soldiers should be assigned the duty of overseeing the two Egged drivers as they clean the floors of the Tel Aviv Central Bus Station. With toothbrushes. And if the drivers can identify anybody who coerced them into disrespecting those who wear our uniform (at great personal cost in a community that despises their service, at that) then the coercers should be made to assist in the cleaning work by licking the toothbrushes clean.

not a fact. In a proces,it is not relevant.

The haredim have destroyed Jewish unity rather than help it as they propose. This is flagrant prejudice, hateful and ILLEGAL!!! The bus operator should lose his job AND pension. Disgusting situation is evolving here in Israel: its a total disgrace to the Jews and to Humanity. These idiots come out of the shtettle and decide the fate of the Jewish homeland? NO FRIGGIN' WAY!!!! Enough is enough with these haters!!! Let them go live in Afghanistan with their 'brothers' who behave the same way. Despicable!!!! FAKE JEWS who abuse everyone and everything. Machers!

Hey idiots - there is no such thing as a "kosher" bus. The laws of kashrut do not apply. Nothing was ever written about buses. You are neither "religious" or "ultra-religious". You are hate-mongers who separate yourselves from everyone else and you hate everyone else. Go live like the Essenes and LEAVE EVERYONE ELSE ALONG! You are an embarrassment to every REAL Jew in the world.

Telling the driver made a mistake is also an assumption .

Everyone, who is familiar with this issue , knows exactly what "kosher" bus means . Not related to kashrut of food .

With stories like this, Israel's enemies can take a break and watch you be destroyed from within.

Working a border detail and dealing with angry people all day long, then try to get home for some peace, only to have your own people make you take a different bus? Why is he having to take the bus in the first place? Can't the soldiers afford vehicles in Israel? There are so many wrongs in this story . . . . Really? Not "allowed" to get on a BUS ?????

The driver(s) should be sanctioned for not taking the soldier on board. (Meanwhile, some buses serving the Jewish communities in the West Bank pick up Palestinian Arabs without permits, taking them to Tel Aviv and Jerusalem!) I lived in Jerusalem in the 1970s, and there was no such thing as a "kosher" bus. Everyone took the same bus. I used to take the #9 from the Givat Ram campus of Hebrew U, through the city, through Mea Shearim and the new developments of Ramat Eshkol and French Hill to Mount Scopus. Haredim rode those buses too.

They should have the freedom to deny would-be passengers boarding. They shouldn't give a conflicting message of course - they could just advertise themselves as the ultra-religious bus company. And it's their business to lose customers and therefore revenue from. More business for other bus companies.

You lived here some 40 years ago , things have changed since the 70's . Some for the better , other for the worse .

Not what you call a "private company" . To open a bus line , the transport ministry issues a tender . In this tender there are conditions of exploitation . Today bus companies can't forbid someone to board a bus [ exept maybe drunk people ] nobody can forbid you to sit where there is a free place [ exept places reserved for handicapped ] Those are rules of the transport ministry .