Hitchhiking in Israel

Tremping occupies an unusual place between improvised transportation and social custom. Sources associate it particularly with soldiers and with communities where bus service is sparse, while later security incidents substantially narrowed its acceptance. Its use has varied by location: rural and peripheral areas, the north, Gush Etzion, national-religious settlements, and ultra-Orthodox communities are among the settings identified in contemporary reporting.[5][1]

Documented instances of hitchhiking in Israel predate the modern security debate by decades. In April 1948, the armored Ford truck leading a convoy toward Hadassah Hospital on Mount Scopus carried 10 soldiers and two hitchhiking Haganah members. The convoy was attacked with a mine and gunfire, and the broader assault killed 78 Jews and one British soldier.[8] This is a specific early instance of hitchhikers traveling with a military convoy rather than evidence of the practice's general prevalence.

A memoir of a 1957 journey recounts how a member of Kibbutz Ein Gedi offered to guide travelers over a rough jeep path in exchange for a lift. He had missed scheduled transportation and otherwise would have waited two more days for the next van.[3] The National Library of Israel also catalogues a 1969 photograph in the Dan Hadani Collection under the English title "Judo and hitchhikers." The negative is listed as part of the Pritzker Family National Photography Collection.[9]

Part of tremping's persistence reflects practical transportation conditions. Traveling around Israel without a private car can be difficult, especially for non-routine trips, on rainy days, or on Shabbat, when regular public transportation is largely absent.[3][4] The Central Bureau of Statistics' Social Survey for 2014–15 found that 66% of Israeli residents aged 20 and above commuted primarily by private vehicle, motorcycle, or carpool; about 20% relied mainly on trains or buses, and 10% walked or cycled.[10] These figures provide transportation context but do not distinguish informal hitchhiking from carpooling.

The expense of owning a car, the cost of taxis, and gaps in bus coverage have made hitchhiking a practical option, and sometimes a necessity, in peripheral and rural communities. Trempiadas, the designated spots where people gather to seek rides, became particularly associated with junctions serving settlements and villages away from major routes. One reported example involved the lack of direct buses from Beersheba to Hazeva and buses encountered after reaching Route 60 that were often already full.[1]

To reduce reliance on hitchhiking in Judea and Samaria, the Defense Ministry funded the bulletproofing of public buses serving settlements. More than 30 percent of public buses had reportedly been bulletproofed since 2009, while bus companies offered settlement residents a 50 percent fare discount intended to encourage bus use.[1] Some residents nevertheless continued to hitchhike because buses remained infrequent, full, or unavailable for particular routes.[1]

For decades, the relationship between soldiers and civilian drivers was a defining feature of tremping culture. An Israel Forever Foundation essay describes picking up an IDF soldier as formerly common, culturally accepted, and socially encouraged, and presents the act as socially and religiously meaningful because soldiers contributed to the security of the Jewish people.[5]

This norm began to erode after the First Intifada began in 1987 and amid a subsequent series of abductions. The 1994 kidnapping of IDF soldier Nachshon Wachsman, who was killed during a failed rescue attempt, marked a turning point. Following his killing, the IDF prohibited soldiers from hitchhiking.[1] The rule did not eliminate the practice, as many soldiers continued to prefer rides over waiting for buses, but it formalized the security concern.

In May 2012, the IDF launched an anti-hitchhiking awareness campaign under the slogan "Don't catch a ride, it could catch you." The campaign used posters, videos, a dedicated website, and social media. It followed warnings that terrorist groups sought to kidnap soldiers as bargaining chips for prisoner releases, and the IDF reported 21 confirmed kidnapping attempts against soldiers since the beginning of 2011.[11] Soldiers in uniform could already ride free on most public transportation, while violations of the hitchhiking prohibition could result in court-martial proceedings and up to 28 days confined to camp.[11]

Designated hitchhiking spots served not only as functional pickup points but also as informal gathering places where different communities intersected. Tapuach Junction, a major highway crossroads approximately 27 miles — about an hour by car — from Jerusalem, was described in a prepared statement included in a 2014 congressional hearing record as "an important hitchhiking nexus for Arabs and Jews, Israelis and Palestinians, those from the settlements and those from the Arab villages."[12] Palestinian day laborers, West Bank employees, Israeli high-tech workers, and office workers gathered there for rides, making the junction a site of everyday interaction.[12]

At Tapuach Junction, Israelis and Palestinians generally assembled in separate spots while waiting. The statement also said that a security checkpoint approximately 30 paces from the hitchhiking area had recently been removed as of April 30, 2013, in an effort to normalize daily life in the area.[12]

Professor Gad Yair, a sociologist at Hebrew University, associated tremping with the idea that "all of Israel is unified" and that the country is "one, big kibbutz." His characterization framed the practice as an expression of shared civic identity rather than merely a pragmatic response to transportation shortages.[1]

The practice acquired particular communal meaning when soldiers were involved. One Israel Forever Foundation account recalls the author's childhood experience of riding beside a soldier whom her father had stopped to collect. Her father explained that picking up strangers should not be done elsewhere, but that in Israel picking up a soldier was considered a mitzvah because soldiers contributed to the security of the Jewish people.[5] The account illustrates one religious interpretation of the soldier tradition rather than establishing that every Israeli understood it in the same way.

Security reporting in 2013 and 2014 identified hitchhiking posts, particularly junction stops near Palestinian population centers in Judea and Samaria, as attractive targets because Israelis waited there in predictable numbers and locations.[13]

Following Operation Pillar of Defense in November 2012, attempts to abduct Israeli civilians and soldiers in Judea and Samaria reportedly increased. Israel Security Agency data quoted by the Meir Amit Intelligence and Terrorism Information Center counted 49 discovered and prevented intentions or attempts from January 2013 through the report's source period, including 11 during 2014.[13] A separate Washington Institute analysis, citing Israeli security sources and using an 18-month period preceding the June 2014 Gush Etzion abduction, reported 44 thwarted kidnapping attempts against Israeli civilians and soldiers.[14] The figures came from different reports and scopes and were not presented as independently audited counts.

In 2013, the IDF reported that a Palestinian Islamic Jihad cell near Hebron had planned to approach a hitchhiking station, open fire on soldiers or civilians waiting there, and abduct victims. A separate Hamas cell of at least nine members allegedly planned to kidnap and murder an Israeli, conceal the body, and use the victim as leverage in negotiations for prisoner releases. An explosive device was found among members of the cell, although the precise stage of planning was unclear.[15] An IDF officer quoted by the Long War Journal said that authorities had "been able to thwart the kidnapping attempts," but that their scope was "extraordinary" and "it is clear we will not be able to foil these attempts forever."[15]

A major turning point in modern discussion of tremping occurred on the night of June 12, 2014. Naftali Fraenkel, 16, of Nof Ayalon, who also held American citizenship; Gilad Shaar, 16, of Talmon; and Eyal Yifrach, 19, of Elad, left a yeshiva in the Gush Etzion bloc and did not arrive home.[13][6] Israeli security forces began searching the following morning on the working assumption that the three had been abducted after hitchhiking at the Gush Etzion junction. A burned-out Hyundai found near Dura, close to Hebron, was linked to the abduction by security sources.[13]

The youths had accepted a ride from two men, and one managed to call police and whisper that he had been kidnapped. The attackers — believed to be Hamas members Marwan Qawasmeh and Amer Abu Aisha — shot the hostages.[6] Their bodies were found 18 days after they disappeared and less than 20 kilometers from the abduction site.[6][7]

The Israeli government launched Operation Brother's Keeper in response. The military searched thousands of West Bank homes and arrested 400 Palestinians.[6] The episode heightened existing tensions between Israel, Hamas, and the Palestinian Authority and was followed by rocket fire from Gaza, Israeli airstrikes, and the launch of Operation Protective Edge on July 8, 2014.[6]

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu publicly attributed the abduction to Hamas. Hamas spokesmen praised the act but denied organizational responsibility, and spokesman Sami Abu Zuhri called the Israeli accusation "foolish." No organization had formally claimed responsibility when the contemporary report was published.[13]

The relative safety of tremping depends heavily on location and circumstance. A former IDF commander distinguished between unguarded hitchhiking posts — particularly those in isolated areas or used at night — and locations inside or immediately outside communities with a security or army presence.[16] Hitchhiking alone, at night, or from remote and desolate spots presents different risks from using a populated trempiyada with visible security.[16]

Some hitchhikers have reported relying on a driver's clothing, religious appearance, apparent school affiliation, or vehicle type to judge whether accepting a ride is safe. The available source presents this as personal judgment rather than as a demonstrated safety method.[16]

U.S. Department of State safety guidelines for Fulbright participants in Israel advised travelers to move in groups, avoid isolated areas after dark, and not pick up hitchhikers. The advice appeared within a broader warning about aggressive driving, congestion, and traffic accidents on Israeli roads.[17]

The 2014 Gush Etzion abduction became a major reference point in later debate about the safety of hitchhiking posts in Judea and Samaria, intensifying pressure on military and civilian communities to reassess the practice.[7]