Israeli bus company returns to Mea She’arim – with police aboard

05.12.2011                      09.Kislev. 5772

Mea She'arim:

Israeli bus company returns to Mea She'arim – with police aboard

Bus services resume after a hiatus of nearly two years, in which there was no public transportation within the ultra-Orthodox neighborhood.

Bus service was restored last week to Jerusalem's Mea She'arim after a hiatus of nearly two years, in which there was no public transportation within the ultra-Orthodox neighborhood. The Egged bus cooperative had halted service due to ongoing sabotage and violence by a group of religious extremists known as the Sicarii; they threw rocks and bottles at passing buses and punctured their tires.
A special police unit has been created to protect the buses and their passengers. Last Monday the new unit faced its first test, after someone threw a rock at a passing bus from inside a neighborhood synagogue. Eyewitnesses related that as soon as the rock was tossed, it became clear that some of the passengers were actually plainclothes officers….