Honenu has filed a civil lawsuit for NIS 220,000 against an Arab bus driver who sprayed perfume on young Jewish boys while traveling in Jerusalem, after he said they "smelled."
The incident occurred two years ago, but the criminal case against the driver was closed following an initial investigation. Now, through a civil lawsuit, the Honenu organization is trying to obtain compensation for the boys.
The lawsuit, which describes the incident, states that the young boys, aged 14 and 15, boarded Egged bus line 19. When the bus passed near the Pat junction in Jerusalem, the driver stopped the bus and demanded that the young men move to the back of the bus. After the young men asked the driver why they had to move to the back, the driver took out a spray bottle of perfume and began spraying them, saying they "'stink'."
Attorney Haim Bleicher, representing the plaintiffs, noted that this was an ugly antisemitic incident, which is doubly serious when it involves a bus driver who is responsible for the safety of hundreds of citizens every day. "Unfortunately, the law enforcement authorities did not want to respond to the incident on a criminal level, and we are making an effort at least on a civil level to compensate the boys for the great emotional distress they suffered and to deter such acts of antisemitism," Bleicher said.