Comments on: Asylum seekers denied discounted bus pass due to ‘technicality’

By: Yaniv

Yaniv — Tue, 13 Mar 2012 15:16:54 +0000

It took me less than a minute to get my anonymous Rav Kav.
It’s true you can’t get it on the bus, but it’s as easy as buying any other bus ticket from the cashier at the central bus station.

As for what you call the “point”, this is the difference between helping asylum seekers and using them for a political reasons.

The point is to help people, not to use them as an excuse to promote a political agenda of open borders.

By: Josh

Josh — Tue, 13 Mar 2012 13:36:29 +0000

Yaniv, as someone who tried to get an anonymous Rav Kav, it’s not as easy as you think: none of the stands in the city have it, at the central bus station they told me to get it from the drivers on the bus, and most of the bus drivers don’t have any – they told me to go to the stands in the city centre or to the central bus station. I assume it’s even harder and more frustrating for asylum seekers who don’t speak hebrew. In any case, all this is beside the point: why should they have to get the limited anonymous Rav Kav? Why can’t they use the passport number that Israel gives them and that is printed on their conditional release visa? It’s a tiny change in policy that could help people a little bit, but nobody cares about them enough to do it. So it is an issue of society’s attitude, Yaniv, not just a technical point.

By: Yaniv

Yaniv — Tue, 13 Mar 2012 11:36:51 +0000

You should check the facts before writing such a manifest.

She can get a monthly pass with “anonymous Rav Kav”. It costs 5 NIS and you don’t need any ID.

It’s too bad Mara Getz Sheftel is so busy with her political debate to see how simple it is to solve the problem.

If you care about that lady please send her the message instead of blaming the Israeli society
of pervasive exclusion.

By: MK

MK — Sat, 03 Mar 2012 18:13:59 +0000

Also, as a foreign student, I cannot get one with only a passport. They say I need an Israeli ID number, so now I cannot get the student discount anymore. I asked the girl if they were working to fix this, and she said no, it is a computer problem.

By: Piotr Berman

Piotr Berman — Tue, 28 Feb 2012 23:26:54 +0000

I never had a monthly ticket in my life, so I checked how to get it in my city of birth, Warsaw. Apparently, full anarchy! If you do not wish to have a special discount (like for schoolchildren or students), you can buy it in any post office or other authorized selling point with no ID whatsoever. If you need a discount, you write the number of school ID on the monthly card (I think you need to show ID together with monthly ticket when there is a check of tickets, but from the posted messages I have seen, school ID is OK so refugee ID should be OK too). The prices seem to be less than 1/2 of Jerusalem.

My other data points are “rechargable cards” in US cities which do not require any ID. I guess that the danger of suicide bombers purchasing monthly tickets is much decreased.

By: lilosemay

lilosemay — Tue, 28 Feb 2012 17:13:14 +0000

Dear Mrs Getz,
it is shame for a state built by past time world refugees has no time and necessity to have mercy on modern refugees. The legislatives of Knesset should ask their diplomats all over the world how many Jews live on discounted benefits from Berlin to rest of Europe so that they might stop the fall of rassist Jewish state. I am sorry for the founder of modern israel, they are making big turns in their grave.
But Mrs Getz pls continue to save the stae of Israel