Palestinian bus drivers are on the front lines of Israeli racial violence
Bus drivers with Koach LaOvdim protest against violence directed at them outside the Transport Ministry in Jerusalem, 29 April 2025
Charlotte Ritz-Jack reports in +972 on 15 January 2026:
During a mass demonstration by Jerusalem’s ultra-Orthodox community against conscription to the Israeli military last week, Palestinian bus driver Fakhri Khatib, driving Egged bus 64, found himself surrounded by a mob of young protesters banging on the side of the bus. He called the police for help, but none arrived.
In a bid to escape the mob, he first reversed the bus several meters. But the protesters followed, and soon managed to prise open the door. As they forced their way inside, they kicked, spat at, and threatened Khatib, leading him to fear for his life. At this point he accelerated forward, unaware that 14-year old Yosef Eisenthal was clinging to the underside of the front bumper. Eisenthal was killed as Khatib drove away, while three more teenagers were wounded.
Two other Palestinian bus drivers, neither of whom have spoken publicly, were attacked that night. One, driving Superbus line 516 through the neighborhood of Bayit VeGan, reported protesters throwing objects at his bus before boarding and then beating him so severely that he required medical evacuation. The second, driving line 77 close to where Eisenthal was killed, reported teenagers discharging a fire extinguisher directly at him, almost suffocating him.
Khatib, a resident of East Jerusalem, was released from house arrest this week but faces charges of negligent homicide (ultra-Orthodox members of Knesset unsuccessfully campaigned for an aggravated murder charge). “If Khatib had known that someone was clinging to the bus, he would not have driven another meter,” his lawyer told Haaretz.
The case has thrust renewed attention onto a phenomenon that bus drivers and labor unions have been grappling with for years. In 2014, a year punctuated by a devastating Israeli military assault on Gaza, one in every three Jerusalem bus drivers quit their jobs amid escalating violence that peaked when driver Yousef Hassan Al-Ramouni was found hanged in his bus (Israeli officials ruled his death a suicide, but many drivers believed Al-Ramouni had been murdered).