Israeli taxi service Gett is being sued by human rights lawyers in Jerusalem for allegedly offering a discriminatory service that gives users an option to filter out Arab drivers.
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The Jerusalem-based "Mehadrin" service offered users of the Gett app the choice to order a taxi guaranteed to not be driven on Shabbat, the Jewish day of rest.
Many Arab Muslim and Christian drivers often work during Shabbat. Gett says that any driver is able to meet the service standards, regardless of their religion.
Asaf Pink, a lawyer working on the case was cited by The Guardian as saying, "They give it a religious title. But, in fact, this is a proxy for a racist service that provides taxis with Jewish drivers," adding, "Of course, they can't just say 'we don't want Arabs'."
The class-action lawsuit seeks around $44 million in damages against the company's CEO Dave Waiser and Gett Israel head Mark Oun for the "Mehadrin" option that allegedly leaves out Arab drivers voluntarily from the user's search.
Prior to submitting the lawsuit, Pink, along with the Israel Religious Action Center, conducted a private investigation in October 2018.
Asked for comment, a Gett spokesperson that "The company has received the lawsuit, it will study it and respond accordingly in court. But to lift any doubts, Gett provides its services to all taxi drivers and all its [app] users… and decisively objects to any kind of discrimination.
"Regarding the last incident, the Mehadrin Gett fleet is just one of the fleets that Gett operations, is open only to Jerusalem users and was launched in order to satisfy a need for a specific sector in the population, to which, according to its faith, is unable to reserve taxis that cannot drive on the Sabbath and on Jewish holiday.
"Every taxi driver who is interested in belonging to this fleet, including non-Jews, can join, on the condition that the taxi does now drive on Shabbat and during Jewish holidays."
This article was originally published by i24NEWS.
