A haredi yeshiva student who documented a bus driver strongly cursing him has turned to the spokesman of the Dan bus company, requesting that the company not fire the driver.
“Following the story which, unfortunately, I was a part of, I cannot find rest knowing that the driver will lose his employment because of the incident (no matter how severe) that happened with me,” the student wrote in a letter published by Behadrei Haredim.
He said that the driver had learned his lesson. “I am sure that we all go through difficult moments like this in life, and nobody is completely resistant to anger. I don’t know the driver and hope that this was an isolated incident, but in any event I am sure that he learned his lesson.”
“There is nobody unworthy of forgiveness, and I want to convey to you that I forgive him completely! In addition, I say that I have no intention, Heaven forbid, of suing him or your company in any sort of legal proceeding. I really hope that the driver is not fired from his employment, and that you simply find the correct way to explain to him the importance of the matter.”
He said that, if he had known that his video clip was going to go viral, he would not have released it. “I filmed the incident only for the purpose of submitting a complaint with your company regarding the unfitting behavior, and if I had known that the video was going to spread like wildfire I would have immediately stored it away.”
In the video, which was published on social media, a woman can be heard cursing the bus driver, and he answers her with curses. He then turns to curse a haredi passenger who had been filming the incident from the beginning.
A spokesman for the Dan bus company said in response to the incident, “Chairman Ofer Zilbiger saw the video, he ordered that the driver immediately cease working in the middle of a shift, and arrive for a pre-termination hearing.”