[monday]

"I gather from the story that this bus takes religious visitors to one of Judaism's holy places for prayers, so it seems appropriate enough to honor the religious customs of the people who make daily use of it."

Only one problem with your analogy. She was on a PUBLIC bus. If the Haredi owned the bus, they would be free to make whatever rules they want. In fact I would fully support them in kicking troublemakers off the bus, or better, in not picking them up in the first place.

My understanding is that Egged is a public bus company which picks up anyone wanting a ride. As such they need to have uniform rules that apply to everyone equally. That means, no one forced to sit at the back of the bus for any reason. It is insulting.

If the Haredi want women to sit at the back, they need to buy their own buses. Alternately, they could work out an arrangement with Egged so that buses meant for them were clearly marked as such and didn't allow non Haredi to use them.

[Wormwood]

If the Haredi want women to sit at the back, they need to buy their own buses. Alternately, they could work out an arrangement with Egged so that buses meant for them were clearly marked as such and didn't allow non Haredi to use them.

Very reasonable.

[Cvengr]

We are not talking about the US and our laws. We are discussing the laws in Israel amongst the Jewish people. I also recognize the men being attacked are also devoted to a faith in God by the obedience to the law they study. That law includes their separation from any woman other than their wife. I suspect it goes quite a bit deeper than that simple observation. The custom respected their faith. Had the woman felt that deeply about sitting in front, perhaps she could also be as cordial to discuss her perspective rather than forcing her actions upon them, assaulting them both physically, soulishly and intentionally to disrupt their spirituality.

IMHO, she would have been better served to work through legitimate authority rather than assuming she could unilaterally force others into her will. The burden was upon her, not upon them.

Now with respect to their actions, one might assert the same, that they also could appeal to legitimate authority to remove her from her location. I suspect in their faith, they had legitimate authority to remove her, but then the issue becomes one of state vs that flavor of Jewish tradition.

I suspect the Jewish gents wouldn't be as offended to sit elsewhere on the bus provided they weren't forced to intermingle with women. I also don't see anything at all wrong with a foreign body of people, a separate nation from the US, having their own laws which fit their people. I do see errors in even Americans foisting our law on foreigners in their lands.