Israeli taxi-hailing app sued for allowing riders to avoid Arab drivers

An international taxi-hailing app has come under fire for a service which allegedly allows customers to discriminate against Arab drivers.
2 min read
22 February, 2020
Gett's 'Mehadrin' service allegedly allows riders to avoid Arab drivers [Getty]

An taxi-hailing app is being sued for allegedly providing an option for Israeli customers to avoid Arab drivers.

Gett, which operates across the US, Europe and Canada, is being sued by a Jerusalem human rights group over its controversial 'Mehadrin' service, which refers to the most stringent level of Kosher supervision.

The service allows riders to choose a taxi which does not operate on the Sabbath, the Jewish day of rest, effectively excluding Jerusalem's non-Jewish taxi drivers.

The class action suite filed against Gett, its founder, David Weiser, and head of Gett Israel, Mark Oun, seeks 150m shekels (around $43,900,000) in damages for alleged discrimination against non-Jewish taxi drivers and Jerusalem's Arab population.

“They give it a religious title. But, in fact, this is a proxy for a racist service that provides taxis with Jewish drivers,” Asaf Pink, a lawyer working on the case, was quoted by The Guardian as saying. “Of course, they can’t just say ‘we don’t want Arabs’.”

Prior to the court action, Pink and the Israel Religious Action Centre commissioned an investigation into Gett which allegedly proved that the firm endorsed discriminatory practices.