Discrimination
It is misogyny, pure and simple. It's all of a piece with "modesty patrols" beating up women who don't adhere to the haredi-Taliban dress code. Haredi women have been raised to be fearful of contradicting men in anything, and have been reduced in many cases to virtual chattel: they do all the work, both inside and outside the house, with endless childbearing, while the parasitic menfolk spend the day in their private club, the yeshiva, doing absolutely nothing but wasting public tax money.

I ALWAYS deliberately sit next to a haredi man when I ride a public bus, if I can, ESPECIALLY if he has attempted to keep the seat next to him free from female presences by putting his hat, or some other impedimenta on the empty seat. I really enjoy it if it is obvious there are a lot of other empty seats, or if they are filled with women. After all, I have NO problem sitting next to HIM. If he doesn't like it, he can get up [and often does].

Egged is not a public company, but it holds the contract for providing PUBLIC transport. I applaud the women who are taking Egged to court to get this situation rectified and hope [but I'm not optimistic] it will be. Israeli men, haredi and secular, stick together far too much when "keeping women down" is the topic.

Antigonos
www.antigonos.blogspot.com