Jerusalem's Arab bus drivers speak out
Jerusalem has seemingly calmed down after several weeks of unrest, but Arab bus drivers tell Al-Monitor that they are constantly subjected to insults and attacks by extremist Jewish passengers.
The series of terrorist attacks and violent clashes in Jerusalem in recent months, variously labeled as “The Al-Aqsa Intifada” and “The Jerusalem Intifada,” among other things, has fortunately abated without igniting an all-out confrontation between Israel and the Palestinians. In retrospect, the meeting among Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, US Secretary of State John Kerry and King Abdullah of Jordan in Amman on Nov. 13 seems to have been the turning point, following which the level of tension decreased.
The effort to calm the situation made by Israel and the Palestinian Authority have borne fruit, and the situation in Jerusalem is under control. But the fragile routine of life in the city has not been fully restored, and any event is liable to rekindle the flames. Numerous police and border patrol forces are deployed in the streets to serve as a buffer between Jews and Arabs, especially in the Old City of Jerusalem and the holy places. Anyone walking through the alleys of the Old City, en route to the Western Wall or the Al-Aqsa Mosque, would notice the hundreds of soldiers and policemen whose job is simply to prevent provocation or even contact between Jews and Arabs.
The tension still felt in the city has been notably reflected in the moves taken by the Arab bus drivers from East Jerusalem, who left their jobs at Egged (Israel Transport Cooperative Society Ltd.) after Palestinian bus driver Yousef Hassan Ramouni had been found dead Nov. 17, his body hanging at an Egged parking lot in the city. His controversial death — in Israel, it was claimed that he had committed suicide, while the Palestinians alleged that he was the victim of a hate crime — exposed a complex set of threats, attacks and humiliation on the part of Jewish passengers experienced by the Arab drivers over a long period. About 20% of the city's Arab bus drivers quit their jobs, or just have not shown up for work since, in protest of the violence against them. In the last two weeks, some of them resumed their jobs as bus drivers, only to discover that the phenomenon has not disappeared.
In an interview with Al-Monitor, three Arab bus drivers who spoke on condition of anonymity, A., N. and D., described the harsh atmosphere, the attacks and humiliations that have become a matter of routine. These events testify, more than anything else, to the sizzling hatred between Jews and Arabs in Jerusalem. Two of the drivers have already returned to work, while one of the three would rather stay home and wait for developments that would allow him to safely go back to work and earn a livelihood.
