The rabbis of two religious communities in Samaria and the former Chief Sephardic Rabbi, Rabbi Mordechai Eliyahu, have asked the Egged bus company to make the bus line that leads to the communities more religion-friendly.

Rabbi Eliyahu signed the letter to Egged along with the rabbis of Kochav Yaakov and adjacent Tel Tzion, which are located near Ramallah. They asked that the Number 43 bus to and from the two communities be made a 'mehadrin' line, like other buses that serve hareidi-religious communities in Israel. This means that the men and women would be seated in separate halves of the bus, and would use separate doors to enter and exit. In addition, the radio would only play Jewish music.

The two communities have more than 5,000 residents at present.