Intensifying Israeli Attacks on Palestinian Bus Drivers in Jerusalem Endanger Their Lives

Palestinian bus drivers in Jerusalem are experiencing ongoing harassment and unsafe working conditions due to Israeli vigilante aggression.

A single bus company, known as the United Bus Company, currently serves more than 400,000 Palestinian Jerusalemites. After Israel revoked the licenses and permits of Palestinian companies that had operated their own bus routes to Palestinian neighborhoods, these routes are now consolidated into a single company directly supervised by the Israeli Ministry of Transportation.

Israeli Egged buses, buses that are part of the largest transportation operator in Israel, used to pass through Palestinian neighborhoods in Jerusalem and serve the area’s residents; however, when the First Intifada occurred in 1987, these buses stopped entering Palestinian neighborhoods, and residents were forced to find alternative routes outside their neighborhoods.

Abu Mashhour, a 69-year-old from East Jerusalem’s Wadi al-Joz neighborhood, told Jerusalem Story that he once used Egged bus number 12, which passed through his area on its way to the Hebrew University. The bus was fast, unlike Arab buses, which did not leave the station until it was full of passengers. “I used to use the Israeli bus to get to Damascus Gate and return home; the bus used to leave from Damascus Gate, go to Wadi al-Joz, and then to the Sheikh Jarrah neighborhood, and from there to the Hebrew University,”1 Abu Mashhour said. “Now, however, no bus passes through Wadi al-Joz, Sheikh Jarrah, or even Damascus Gate.”

After the boundaries of Jerusalem were expanded to include Israeli settlements, there are now more than six huge bus companies traversing the streets of (Jewish) West Jerusalem and the outskirts of East Jerusalem without providing any service to East Jerusalem except at specific points.

This massive expansion of the transportation network necessitated an increase in the number of drivers, and as usual, Palestinian drivers from East Jerusalem were relied upon. According to the Power to the Workers Union, which organizes informal workers into unions and defends and represents them before company owners and official Israeli institutions, more than 70 percent of public bus drivers in Jerusalem are Palestinians.2

Murad Atoun, a bus driver and official in the Power to the Workers Union, explained to Jerusalem Story that this “large number of Arab drivers is what keeps the city alive.”3 He noted, “They drive thousands of buses daily, around the clock, for all companies, from the largest, Egged, to companies like Superbus, Exter, Kavim, and Afikim.”

With the increasing number of Palestinians driving buses that reach every part of Jerusalem and its surroundings, especially the areas with settlements, racism against these drivers is rising and intensifying in severity to the point that any accident that occurs in Israel targets Arab drivers.

The Times of Israel reported that there were at least 12 such attacks in the city in the first week of November 2025 alone. It noted, “But this week was especially violent—assailants shattered bus windows, pepper-sprayed and beat drivers as well as fare inspectors and passengers, landing several people in the hospital.”4

The drivers’ only fault is that they transport Jews to their homes, workplaces, and places of entertainment.

Mohammed Tahan, a bus driver and union activist who works on the route of Ma‘ale Adumim, which is considered the largest settlement in the occupied West Bank, told Jerusalem Story: “I see hatred in the eyes of most passengers I transport from the settlements to Jerusalem and vice versa. This, of course, does not apply to all Jewish passengers, but it is the majority, and recently the hatred and racism have increased.”5

He added, “I was beaten inside the settlement by young men in front of the settlement guards and passengers, and no one moved a muscle or offered me any help. That’s why I really feel in danger. Every morning when I leave my house, I say to myself: I don’t know if I will survive the whole day, and I’m not sure if I will return to my house safe at the end of the day.”

“We go to the police after every attack, demanding protection, but without any significant results,” Mohammed told Jerusalem Story. “Even the investigations opened by the police are all closed under the pretext of a lack of public interest or insufficient evidence, and this indifference from the police encourages more Jewish racist attacks on Arabs, whether drivers or workers. This explains why more than 60 percent of attacks on drivers throughout Israel occur in Jerusalem and against Arabs only, as statistics from the Power to the Workers Union show,” he said.

Driver Mustafa Abdel Rahman, who works for the Superbus company, shared that he was attacked by more than 20 Jewish boys, aged between 13 and 17, and fans of the Beitar Jerusalem football team near their stadium in Jerusalem’s Malha neighborhood. Mustafa revealed to Jerusalem Story that the boys tried to disrupt the bus’s operation by closing the back doors, and when the bus stopped for the passengers’ safety, they showered him with racist insults, including “dirty Arab,” “death to Arabs,” and “we will burn you,” before one of them spat on him and hit him, which required medical intervention.

The driver added that he was forced to lock himself inside the bus, but the assailants continued their attacks and insults from behind the barrier. “I’ve been a driver for 18 years, but what’s happening now is unprecedented,” he said. “I feel my life is in danger every day just because I’m Arab; I won’t risk my life again; this isn’t fair.”

Mustafa Subh, 56, who has worked for the Superbus company since 2023, was assaulted less than a month ago by Jewish youths because of his Arab identity. “I was working on route 225, which passes through the area of Har Homa [a settlement built on Jabal Abu Ghneim near Bethlehem], and when I arrived at a station near the Malha area, I picked up two Jewish boys, aged 17–18, who were dressed entirely in black and they assaulted me when they found out I was Arab,”6 Mustafa said.

Mustafa added that drivers are restricted and forbidden from responding to passengers, even when they are assaulted. “All I want is to earn my living with dignity, without assaulting anyone or being assaulted by anyone,” he said.

The Times of Israel elaborated that apathy from Israeli officials is fueling the violence against Palestinian bus drivers. Israel Ganon, chairman of the Israeli Bus Drivers Association, told the online paper, “We are very angry at the police and the mayor because no one is doing anything to stop this. We know that there are specific areas and time periods that are problematic—like after soccer games, for example, in which security is needed.”7

He accused authorities of neglecting the issue. “There is no punishment by judges, there is no enforcement from police, and this leads to the violence; it’s a very simple situation.”8

Moreover, Ganon pointed out, “The issue is becoming something societal,” meaning that the attackers come from simply run-of-the mill average Jewish families, not some extremist or fringe elements.9

As a result of the wave of attacks on Palestinian bus drivers in Jerusalem, several drivers who work for the Extra bus company in Jerusalem went on strike on July 15, 2025, in protest against the racist attack that their colleague, driver Ahmed Shehadeh, was subjected to while working on route number 65 in the Neve Ya’akov neighborhood near Beit Hanina, in East Jerusalem.10

One of the protesting drivers, who prefers to remain anonymous, told Jerusalem Story, “What happened to Ahmed could happen to any of us; we are united as one, and we will not return to work in the Neve Ya’akov neighborhood [settlement] until further notice.”11

He added that many drivers who are assaulted decide to quit their jobs, while others need time to recover from the physical and psychological abuse they endure before they can return to driving a bus and serve passengers again.

The Power to the Workers Union considers the recent attacks to be a new episode in a wave of deliberate racist violence against Arab drivers that has become alarmingly frequent amid police inaction. Itai Cohen, head of the transportation branch of the union, told Jerusalem Story: “We are demanding the implementation of previous security recommendations to protect drivers, including the installation of a complete barrier separating the driver from the passengers, the deployment of mobile security units, and the recognition of drivers as public service employees to guarantee legal protection, in addition to imposing strict penalties on assailants.” The union official emphasized that these attacks would lead to the death of a driver if Israeli police officials do not provide full protection.

Ziad Hammouri, director of the Jerusalem Center for Social and Economic Rights, believes that the Israeli police are responsible for the increasing frequency of attacks on Palestinian drivers. “If the police wanted to act decisively to put an end to this phenomenon, they could easily reach all the attackers and bring them to trial,”12 Ziad said. “They could also protect Arab workers in West Jerusalem, not just drivers on Israeli buses, but look at what the police are doing to all the residents of Jerusalem, as they themselves carry out attacks on Jerusalemites through fines, beatings, and arrests,” he added.

“It is clear that we are facing a wide wave of attacks against us in Jerusalem from more than one side, the most dangerous of which are the attacks by settlers and Jewish extremists,” Ziad told Jerusalem Story. “I do not rule out that Arabs will be killed in these attacks, as the situation in Jerusalem is extremely tense and extremely sensitive.”

Palestinians in Jerusalem who are working as bus drivers are trying to make a living and serve their communities, but these days, that means risking their lives.