The bus driver arrested in the fatal ramming of 14-year-old Yosef Eisental during a Haredi protest in Jerusalem is no longer suspected of murder under aggravated circumstances, after police revised the charge. However, the Jerusalem Magistrate’s Court on Wednesday extended his detention by nine days.
During the hearing, defense counsel questioned why no Haredi protesters had been arrested. Judge Sharon Lary-Babli responded by presenting police video footage and sharply rebuked the argument.
“Tell me he doesn’t see them. He doesn’t see them?” she said. “Twenty children are standing in front of him.”
The judge said the driver arrived at the scene and at a certain point the bus door opened, with many youths crowding the entrance. In the video shown in court, the driver can be seen closing the glass partition as youths climbed onto the bus, kicked the barrier and waved a stick.
At one stage, a Haredi youth climbed onto the bus and spat at the driver through the partition. The driver then began driving at very high speed as the youth fell from the bus, while dozens of youths standing in front of the vehicle were pushed aside.
Footage from the incident
(Video: Yehuda Aharoni)
“Another video shows the bus charging toward the protesters,” the judge said. “The defense claims the driver feared for his life, called the police and could not reverse because protesters were behind him. I believe the driver felt danger, and the phone call supports that claim. I also believe that being spat at and attacked is a stressful situation.”
“However,” she added, “I do not believe that driving rapidly into a crowd was the correct option. The victim is the deceased, not the driver. I do not accept the claim that this is a political case.”
A police representative told the court that senior Israel Prison Service and police officials were present at the hearing due to the severity of the case. She said the high level of danger posed by the suspect stemmed from “the audacity of driving at speed into a crowd of teenagers.”
The arrest of the driver
“At this stage there are 39 investigative actions,” she said. “He was questioned overnight and additional actions may still be required. The murder clause was removed after reviewing the materials, but that does not mean the suspicion has weakened.”
Earlier, Jerusalem District Commander Maj. Gen. Avshalom Peled addressed the incident, saying it occurred at a central intersection that was not part of the approved protest area.
“We defined it as a ‘life artery’ and left it open to vehicular traffic to allow routine life in the area,” Peled said. “The bus driver was immediately arrested and claimed he felt distress and tried to leave the area. That claim does not diminish the severity of the incident, and the investigation is continuing in all directions.”
Peled said police respect the Haredi public and called for dialogue. He added that the main protest, held with police approval on Bar-Ilan Street, proceeded as planned.
Footage lasting four minutes and 30 seconds from the scene shows a crowd surrounding the bus amid roadblocks and burning trash bins. Throughout the time the bus was encircled, no police officers are visible in the area, despite the nearby mass protest and despite the driver’s call to police reporting that he felt threatened.
According to the footage, the crowd began counting down, apparently ahead of a charge at the bus. At the end of the countdown, the driver accelerated.
The incident occurred during a protest by thousands of Haredim against IDF conscription. Bonfires were lit on the road, and videos from the scene show the bus striking protesters near Yirmiyahu, Shamgar and Ohel Yehoshua streets.
Magen David Adom teams treated four injured people, including Eisental, a 14-year-old from Jerusalem’s Ramot neighborhood. He was dragged dozens of meters by the bus, became trapped underneath the vehicle and was found unconscious. He was later pronounced dead.
Witnesses said Eisental was clinging to the bus. Moshe, an eyewitness, told Ynet: “The driver was attacked, people hit him. To get out of the situation, he drove with a child hanging on the bus. He was dragged. The driver went 70 to 80 kilometers per hour, reached the intersection, turned, saw a child approaching and did not stop. What happened next, we all saw.”
Hundreds of people attended Eisental’s funeral outside the Ohel HaTorah yeshiva where he studied. Eulogies were delivered before the procession departed for Har HaMenuchot cemetery.
Rabbi Tucker, the yeshiva’s head, said: “Only recently we were at your bar mitzvah. How much we loved you. You were a precious stone. If such a diamond is taken from us, it must shake us all.”