Jerusalem – Ministry to Court: ‘Mehadrin’ Buses Segregation is Illegal, by Choice OK

Jerusalem – The Transportation Ministry delivered the conclusions of the committee report on gender-segregated public bus-lines, known as ‘Mehadrin’ buses, to the High Court of Justice today.

According to the report, the segregation itself is not legal, but passengers may voluntarily segregate themselves if they so chose.

Egged had previously told the court that it had begun to offer segregated buses to the haredi community to compete with “pirate” buses that were already offering that service. There were reasonable alternatives for non-haredi customers on integrated routes, Egged added.

The petitioners in the case have argued that that the public bus companies operated segregated buses “in which the women are required to enter from the back door and sit in the back of the bus, while the men enter from the front doors and sit in front.