A reserve officer and terror victim claims that a confrontation broke out last Friday during a ride on Egged bus line 967 toward Beit Shean, after he asked the driver to lower the volume of the music being played on the bus.
According to the officer, the driver was playing Arabic-language music, including Palestinian radio stations, and refused to comply with his request.
The officer said that following the incident, he contacted a police patrol, which arrived at the scene and spoke with the driver and the couple. He claims that afterward, the driver said he was feeling unwell and that another driver would take over the route.
However, the officer alleges that after he and his wife got off the bus, the driver continued the journey with the remaining passengers.
The officer said that he and his wife were left on the side of a Jordan Valley road, near an Arab village that he described as being in a hostile area. He said he contacted police again, and officers transported him and his wife to a bus stop in a Jewish community.
The officer said he plans to file a civil lawsuit against Egged and the driver through the organization "B'Tsalmo," claiming: "The driver and the company endangered my life. Leaving me on a Friday in the middle of a hostile road on a scorching hot day is life-threatening."
Egged rejected the allegations, saying that an internal inquiry with the driver found that music in Hebrew, Arabic and English was played at a low volume. The company added that an inspector who boarded the bus during the trip confirmed the volume was low, and that after the police arrived, the couple chose to leave the bus voluntarily. The company further stated that the driver did not ask the passengers to get off and did not remove them from the bus.