The official reason for introducing new bus lines is that theexisting “mixed” ones are overcrowded and conflict-prone. Around30,000 Palestinians work in Israel and have to travel there everyday.
Plans to put them on separate bus lines were first announced inNovember 2012, following several episodes of police takingPalestinian laborers off buses from Tel Aviv to the West Bank. Thepolice acted on complaints from Jewish settlers, who claimed thatPalestinians posed a security threat by riding the same buses asthem.
The plan for separate buses for Palestinians was condemned byIsraeli human rights group B’Tselem: “The attempt at bussegregation is appalling, and the current arguments about ‘securityneeds’ and ‘overcrowding’ must not be allowed to camouflage theblatant racism of the demand to remove Palestinians frombuses,” executive director Jessica Montell said.
Transport officials have denied accusations they were aimingto segregate Palestinians from Israelis: "The TransportationMinistry is forbidden from preventing any passenger from boardingany line of public transportation, nor do we know of a directive tothat effect. Instating these lines was done with the knowledge andcomplete agreement of the Palestinians,” the ministry said in astatement, according to Ynet.
However, drivers interviewedby the same source confessed that de facto segregation isinevitable. "We are notallowed to refuse service and we will not order anyone to get offthe bus, but from what we were told, starting next week, there willbe checks at the checkpoint, and Palestinians will be asked toboard their own buses," saida driver working for Afikim, a company with a government tender toserve West Bank settlements.
Much of the web discourse on the news compared the move withsimilar practices in history, particularly the 'Jim Crow' laws thatprovided legal basis for segregation in the US between 1896 and1965. “I believe this is worse than conditions in Montgomerythat Rosa Parks felt intolerable in the 1950s,” says MiddleEast expert Pillip Weiss, the founder and co-editor ofMondoweiss.net.
Controversialsurvey results published by Haaretz newspaper four monthsago revealed a majority of Israeli Jews believe they are living inan apartheid state.
Much of the web discourse on the news compared the move withsimilar practices in history, particularly the 'Jim Crow' laws thatprovided legal basis for segregation in the US between 1896 and1965. “I believe this is worse than conditions in Montgomerythat Rosa Parks felt intolerable in the 1950s,” says MiddleEast expert Pillip Weiss, the founder and co-editor ofMondoweiss.net.
Controversialsurvey results published by Haaretz newspaper four monthsago revealed a majority of Israeli Jews believe they are living inan apartheid state.
