A new self-dubbed "independent and a-political" project calls on women to board buses in haredi population centers and sit in the front of the bus to fight the alleged practice of gender-segregated buses. While the phenomenon is rare, even in the more conservative haredi neighborhoods, it receives a lot of coverage in the secular media.
The project's founder, Bosmat Brantis, said: "I founded a group called 'We are all Rosa Parks,' we get on busses that are usually used by haredim, and they discriminate against women when they tell them to sit in the back. We intentionally come and sit in the front. No one dares to bother us." The project's name is a nod to black activist Rosa Parks, who in 1955 refused to give up her seat for a white man as was the norm in the segregation era.
The project has "taken off," and its Facebook page, which is just under a month old, has already gained 72 likes.
Naor Narkis, an activist who created the "Enlightened Israel" Facebook page, shared the project on social media. Narkis writes that he created the page "to use the community to help me build political strength, which will allow me in the future to enter any government that would be formed in Israel and to make the public sphere more liberal and secular."