As a follow up to my original post, I wanted to update our faithful readers. The other day I was sitting at a stop light in Jerusalem. There was a long line of traffic — it’s one of those pain in the ass lights that ALWAYS has a line of traffic backed up.
So I’m sitting there.
And sitting there.
I check rear view mirror.
Note the traffic behind me.
I inch forward.
We sit.
Sit a little more.
**BOOM**
I got hit. How does one get hit when we’re all just sitting? I get out of the car and the other driver gets out…
“Ha kol beseder (Everything is fine),” he states. Not a question. A statement. Gee thanks, asshole, for letting me know that my car and my body are both FINE after you HIT ME while we’re all just SITTING at a light. I checked the bumper. There was a scratch on my brand new car. Not horrible but I did NOT want some jerk telling me that I’m ok. I told him it’s not ok. 
I do a double take. It’s a cop.
People…I got hit at a stop light by a cop. I swear it. And the cop tried to tell me that I’m ok. I was so shocked, I lost all my Hebrew and just stared at him as though he was an alien. Meanwhile the traffic STILL hasn’t moved and we’re all STILL sitting in the same spots.
I took his license plate number and got in my car.
Who do you call when it’s the cops who have hit you!?
Zabaj: the Junk in Israel's Trunk 
same people you call when anyone else hits you – your insurance company. That is, if you intend to have it repaired through them. That’s not necessarily a good idea, because they may increase your premium, and it’ll outweigh the cost of fixing the damage yourself.
I don’t know how many of you know this (or notice, excuse the pun), but all those company cars with the “how’s my driving?” stickers are obliged by law to have them. That’s the case for any company owning a fleet of 20 or more cars. I don’t think the police have there (they’re above the law, after all).
I’d call the police HQ in our area (look for the number on their website), and report the officer and his conduct. I’m confident he’ll come out of it without reprimand, but it’s important they know a bout this, at least for their statistics.
My friend relays that he was once sitting in a bus at a stoplight somewhere in the mercaz when two cars both entered the intersection nose-to-nose. Both drivers jumped out of their vehicles, yelled at each other, got back into their cars, and proceeded to crash into each other at low speed. Only in Israel.
מועדים לשמחה
When someone hits you from the back, you shouldn’t go out and argue.
The smartest thing you can do is remain sitted and yell “ow!! my neck!!” while he comes to see what damage he has made….That way you’ll get more money out of insurance 🙂
In your case, you didn’t even have to wait till a cop arrived…
Ghostbu- nevermind.
I can’t believe it. Same exact thing happened to me. I’m on my motorbike passing a traffic cop in downtown Jerusalem. When I reach the intersection of King David, Shlmotzion haMalcha and Agron, I patiently stop for the red light. About 5 seconds go by when I’m suddenly jerked forwards. When i regain my bearings I see that the traffic police car had plowed into my at the stop light. How this is even possible, is beyond me; I mean, they saw me pass them seconds before. I guess they were deep in conversation.
Damage: My license plate was folded inward. A few months later a traffic cop gave me a ticket for having “intentionally folded my license to evade police.” I explained that, in fact, it was one of his genius peers who managed to bend my license plate when they smashed into me at a stoplight.
I’m definitely going to give you guys a link from my MySpace. I also have an in-progress blog there about the absolute chaos in that nutty country. Stumbled upon your blog while looking for a stupid road sign I had seen over there. Great effort here. Cheers.
Trying to explain the madness:
http://forecasthighs.com/2007/11/22/whats-eating-the-israeli-driver/
Hello. I think you are eactly thinking like Sukrat. I really loved the post.