Photo courtesy of Jerusalem Facebook page

Three years ago, the Israel Religious Action Center (IRAC) of the Reform Movement in Israel brought a huge class action lawsuit against the Gett Taxi app. The app had developed a service for Jerusalemites called Gett Mehadrin, which it began employing five years ago, which would, they said, allow (mainly) ultra-Orthodox users to ensure that their drivers were those who observed Shabbat. In practice, it allowed users to guarantee they would get a Jewish driver and discrimination against Arab ones. 

In a recently announced compromise agreement submitted to the Jerusalem District Court for approval, Gett Taxi will eliminate its discriminatory Gett Mehadrin service and will pay $1.6 million (NIS 6 million) compensations to Arab taxi drivers who were excluded from the service as well as two NGOs that promote shared living between Jews and Arabs (Hand in Hand and Access Israel).

IRAC attorneys Orly Erez Likhovski, Ori Narov and Miri Yasaf Nahmias said, “We welcome the cancellation of the Gett Mehadrin service and the significant compensation to Arab taxi drivers. We will continue to work for equality of services in Jerusalem and throughout Israel and act in cases of discrimination towards the Arab public and other groups.”