The Jerusalem bus company Egged has decided to stop carrying any advertising on its buses – not because it dislikes advertising but because of “Haredi violence and vandalism.”
“This matter has something important to say to Israeli society,” says [the religious freedom movement] Yerushalmim CEO Uri Ayalon. “We can’t abandon the capital city. Today, there are no pictures of men or women in Jerusalem. Tomorrow, there won’t be any in Tel Aviv. It’s inconceivable.”
“Egged’s decision is absurd,” says [Rachel] Azaria, the [Jerusalem] councilwoman [and Yerushalmim activist who successfully petitioned Israel’s High Court of Justice to stop Egged’s and Cnaan’s censorship of women’s faces and bodies]. “If Egged buses are vandalized, then instead of going to the police and demanding enforcement, they’re making men and women invisible. It’s like not letting the kids go out to recess if there’s a bully in school, instead of dealing with the bully.”
Disappearing all women is the new normal.