Clash of Transportation

Before leaving for Israel many have asked me "Nir are you going to take the bus in Jerusalem?" as if this was synonym of an extreme danger. Truly before I came to Israel I have avoided taking the bus in Israel and preferred alternative means of transportation but today lacking better choices and money I ride the bus.

However this is not a post on how to confront terror but rather on the reality of Jerusalem. What I have come to discover is that transportation in Jerusalem reflects well the divisions of the city and to some extent of the Israeli society.

Every morning at Mount Scopus I find myself waiting at the bus stop and I see different buses. Of course as you can imagine many touristic buses pass by. They are probably full of Japanese tourists enjoying a unique view of the city or sometimes Taglit "kids" discovering their heritage. In our daily lives like many Israelis and Palestinians we have little or no interaction with that population.

Then I realized that while I was waiting for my Egged bus, on the morning another bus was coming even more frequently. The bus or sometimes the van is white with green Arabic inscriptions. Often I observe Palestinians probably going to work or kids going to school. The green line with a number 1 serves Palestinian villages and some lines go as far as the Palestinian territories. I can imagine that only a few Jews venture in those lines.

The main public transportation is Egged where Jews seculars or religious, Arabs and even sometimes tourists venture. Egged in Jerusalem mainly serves Jewish areas eventhough it serves some but not all Arab villages.

But I recently came to discover that Egged has adapted itself to the Israeli society.
Egged has come up with a new branch called Egged Plus nicknamed "Mehadrin" to serve the Haredi (ultra orthodox) population. Lines have been set up between the following cities: Modiin, Beitar, El'Ad, Bnei Brak and Jerusalem (cities with a strong Haredi concentration). Egged has probably come up with that initiative because of the existence of private lines run by religious Jews where men and women sit apart and observe the modestly Tsniout laws. Indeed, every person who enters in Jerusalem during the day will observe a mass of Haredi Jews waiting for the bus at the entrance of the city. Those buses do not go through the central bus station but rather pick up the passengers from different stations. Egged Plus has set up competitive price, the lines come often, the passengers are self disciplined and modesty is respected.

So, in a way transportation in Jerusalem might represent the existing cleavages of Jerusalem. In Jerusalem to caricature there exists a few tribes and just to name a few there are the Haredi (who would have their own line outside of Jerusalem) the Palestinians (who have their shuttle or buses that connect their villages to the rest of the city) and the rest non Haredi Jewish Israelis who use Egged. I certainly forgot the upper layer of the society that would not use buses because they are well of.

This is not to say that while you ride the bus in Jerusalem you will find yourself sitting next to a Palestinian on you right and next to a Haredi on your left.

Instead of jumping into easy conclusions and to answer on what needs to be done and how it should be done or if anything should be done, I think that this observation is just a consequence of a set of factors that have preexisted for a long time. And maybe the changes can and should come from the society itself! And to conclude since I have been a supporter of congestion pricing I hope to see one day "in sha'llah" (as some might say) good efficient and secure transportation in Jerusalem with fewer cars in the streets and Jews and Arabs of all kind sharing their ride!

Shalom,

From Jerusalem,

Nir