Bus Protest at Benjamin Regional Council, Psagot

Ramalla as seen from Psagot

I hadn't been in Psagot for years. It's a yishuv northwest of Jerusalem which is more a suburb or neighborhood of Ramalla in terms of its actual location. It was established around the same time that we moved to Shiloh in the early 1980's. For whatever the reason, the "powers" decided to make Psagot our "capital," and the local administrative offices are there.

As I had written yesterday on Shiloh Musings, the ordinary citizen of Mateh Binyamin, the Benjamin Regional Council are steaming mad about the changes in our public transportation. For that reason, yesterday a few dozen of us from Shiloh, Eli, Shvut Rachel and Ma'ale Levona went off to protest at the offices of Avi Ro'eh, the "governor" of our region.

This was not a very well planned protest, but it was certainly an emotional one. As we wandered around the building shouting and holding up signs.

חוזרים למרכזית Chozrim l'Merkazit, Return to Central Bus Station

Our main theme/demand was that we want our main Jerusalem stop to be returned to the Central Bus Station and not on the street of the outermost northern neighborhood Pisgat Zeev.



Finally, our regional head Avi Ro'eh agreed to talk and listen to us, but under his conditions, outside "as not to disturb the workers." We said our bit, and he listened. Avi said that they are already trying to get our earliest and latest buses to be from "the area of the Central Bus Station." It would require recalculating the schedule. Those buses will also be outdoors, at the same location that Beit El is protesting about.

I'll keep you updated, G-d willing.