Beit Shemesh: an Arab bus driver violently assaulted by a 15-year-old
“When will this racism stop?” he said. “I come to work and serve the public, and this is how I am treated?”
A 15-year-old boy has been arrested on suspicion of assaulting a bus driver in Beit Shemesh on Sunday, leaving the 48-year-old victim unconscious and requiring hospital treatment.
Driver Khaled Awaishet said the confrontation began after a passenger asked to leave the bus roughly 10 meters beyond a designated stop. Awaishet said he refused to open the doors because regulations prohibited him from allowing passengers to disembark there.
According to Awaishet, the teenager then forced open the driver’s security barrier, spat at him and directed an anti-Arab slur at him before repeatedly striking him in the face and head.
Awaishet said he tried to reach his phone to contact police but continued to be hit until he lost consciousness.
“I only woke up in the ambulance,” he said.
The driver said he managed to activate the bus brake before passing out, potentially preventing the vehicle from crashing.
Police opened an investigation after the attacker fled the scene. Officers located the suspect, a Jerusalem resident, later that night and took him to the Beit Shemesh police station for questioning. Police were expected to seek an extension of his detention.
Speaking from his hospital bed, Awaishet said Arab bus drivers are facing an increasingly hostile environment in parts of Beit Shemesh. He alleged that verbal abuse, harassment and violence have become so common that some drivers avoid certain neighborhoods or have left the profession.
“When will this racism stop?” he said. “I come to work and serve the public, and this is how I am treated?”
Awaishet said he would wait to see how police handle the case before deciding whether to return to work.
The incident follows another reported assault earlier this month in Jerusalem, where an Arab bus driver was beaten unconscious and lost four teeth.