Public transportation in Tel Aviv and the surrounding area came to a stop for one minute today in memory of Mordechai Yekuel, a 27-year-old bus driver who was murdered yesterday in his bus near Ramallah. Hundreds of Yekuel’s colleagues in the Dan Bus Cooperative in which he was a member attended the funeral this afternoon and buses throughout the country had their headlights on at noon in memory of the slain driver.
Yekuel was found in his empty bus with the engine still running. The driver who was still alive when found said he was on his way back from driving a group of Arab workers to their homes in a village near Ramallch when he was stabbed by three Arabs who he had stopped to pick up. Yekuel’s revolver was found by his side with a piece of wood stuck in the barrel, apparently put there by his killers. He died a few minutes after he was found.
The Dan management, after an emergency meeting last night, decided to continue its regular transportation of workers to and from the West Bank but demanded adequate protection, not just arming the driver. Yekuel, a sabra, was a graduate of the ORT school and was a paratrooper before becoming a member of the Dan Bus Cooperative.
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