Egged bus attacked by 3 Arab Israelis
3 Tur'an residents set upon a bus following road dispute; assailants followed bus, hurl bottle of water and then thermos with coffee at it, then attack it with crowbars, hammer; attackers driven away only after Golani soldiers on bus disembark with weapons cocked, threatening them.
Police said the suspects escaped and a search was underway.
The bus driver, Shlomi Madar, turned right at Golani junction heading towards route 77. The suspects tried to overtake him while driving on the road's shoulders, he said, but their route ahead was blocked by his bus.
"They may have honked at me, and I didn't notice. I was concentrating on driving. At some point they got ahead of me, stopped and one of them threw a water bottle at my window. It broke the windshield wiper but did no other damage, so I didn't confront them about it," Madar recounted.
The rest of the event was document in a video made by the driver himself. "I tried ignoring them, but they stopped in the middle of the road again, and I had no choice but to do the same. They threw a thermos of coffee at my windshield. Nearer to Tur'an, they drove up again when I was stopped at a red light. They took crowbars and a hammer out of their car and started smashing my headlights and the bus's door," Madar continued.
The bus driver said passengers were in a state of panic at that point. However, two Golani soldiers aboard the bus disembarked with their weapons cocked and chased the three interlopers away. "One of the soldiers told them he's going to shoot them if they don't leave and it worked; they escaped into the village," the driver said.
While the experience was a traumatizing one for Madar, he said it was far from extraordinary on the road. "As an experienced driver, I see it all the time. Violence on the road, drivers threatening you or driving intentionally recklessly, because they have something against you. In any event, if anybody deserves a commendation, it's the soldiers who chased them away," he said.
Police were called to the scene by some of the bus's passengers and an investigation into the incident has been launched. "The Israel Police considers the incident to be very grave. The video showed hoodlums blocking the bus's route and damaging it. An investigation uncovered the suspects' identities, and they will be located and arrested," the police's comment said.
The Egged bus company said they unequivocally derided the violence "exercised recently in Jerusalem and elsewhere in Israel against the company's drivers and vehicles. We call on the police to act sternly and uncompromisingly to defend both the drivers and their passengers."
Erez Kita, CEO of non-profit safe driving group Or Yarok, cautioned against an increase in similar incidents, brought about by low police presence on highways. "Violence in our society made its way to our roads and is a direct result of decreased traffic police presence on our streets and roads. When the public sees so few officers, deterrence disappears and people are unafraid to act belligerently, safe in the knowledge the chances of getting caught are low," he said.
