Betzedek has joined a High Court petition filed by Kavei Mehadrin after no representative for the chareidi public was involved in the case by the courts.
The High Court is scheduled to hear a petition regarding the conditions for operating the Mehadrin bus lines. After reaching the conclusion that these lines are legal, the High Court ordered the Transportation Minister to appoint a committee to set regulations to guide how the bus lines are operated.
Surprisingly, the chareidi public, which ostensibly would be most affected by the petition, was not given the opportunity to present its position to the High court and the various parties involved in the case.
Betzedek sent a letter asking to join the petition as an additional respondent or at least as "a friend of the court." The Transportation Ministry supported the request, while the public bus companies left the matter up the High Court to decide. Predictably, the women who filed the petition objected to any chareidi representation, claiming, "The petition has been taking place in this court for two years and the chareidi public has not shown any interest all this time, so it should remain on the sidelines."
The judges accepted Betzedek's request to serve as "a friend of the court," a status reserved for entities the court recognizes as experts in the matter at hand.
The first action Betzedek took was to request to have its representatives serve as observers and/or members of the committee, which has been operating for six months and has received 70,000 comments and suggestions from the public. As expected the committee chairman objected, claiming that all of the committee members are civil servants, and the committee has no observers.
The committee recently submitted an interim report to the court indicated that the committee is primarily engaged in hearing academic figures and is already preparing to start drafting its conclusions, though the sector behind the petition, which is mostly chareidi, has not been given a chance to let its view known.
When Judge Rubinstein ordered Betzedek to respond to the report, the organization described its questionable conduct and its refusal to allow chareidim access to its proceedings.
According to Betzedek the committee's conduct and secrecy raise concerns that it has not internalized the court's decision to permit mehadrin lines and committee members may be trying to thwart this decision through improper means. Betzedek is reiterating its demands to allow it to have a representative take part in committee proceedings as a member or observer.
