Minister of Defense not content with moving Palestinians to the back of the bus,

[Jefferson23]

means to keep them off entirely.


Woman disembarks a Palestinians-only bus before crossing through Israel's Eyal checkpoint. Photo: Baz Ratner, Reuters, 4 March, 2013

In response to reports that Israeli Minster of Defense Moshe Ya’alon intends to yield to the settler demand to prevent Palestinian day laborers from returning home to the West Bank on Israeli public buses, Israeli human rights group B'Tselem says that Minister Ya'alon is not content with merely moving Palestinians to the back of the bus, but means to keep them off buses altogether.

It is time to stop hiding behind technical arrangements such as the demand that Palestinians return to the West Bank through the same checkpoint they entered Israel, and admit this military procedure is thinly veiled pandering to the demand for racial segregation on buses.

http://www.btselem.org/press_releases/20141026_separation_in_buses

[Jefferson23]

1. Report: Palestinians barred from Israeli West Bank buses

JERUSALEM (AFP) -- Palestinians will be effectively banned from riding the same buses as Israeli settlers in the West Bank, local media said Sunday, with a rights group slamming the plan as "racial segregation."

Hundreds of Palestinians travel each day to work in Israel from the occupied West Bank, mainly in the construction business, using a single crossing point at Eyal where they present travel permits.

Currently they are allowed to return to the West Bank on the same buses as Israeli settlers.

But a new measure announced by Israeli Defense Minister Moshe Yaalon, due to go into effect next month, will require them to again check in at the Eyal crossing point, the Haaretz daily reported.

The workers would have to find separate transportation from that point on.

The directive in effect "bans Palestinian workers from traveling on Israeli-run public transportation in the West Bank," said Haaretz.

The defense minister was not immediately available for comment.

Israeli settlers in the West Bank have called for years for Palestinians to be banned from public transport there, arguing their presence poses a security risk.

http://www.maannews.net/eng/ViewDetails.aspx?ID=735449

[Israeli]

2. Haaretz Editorial .........

Defense Minister Moshe Ya’alon has instructed that Palestinian laborers be prohibited from using Israeli public transportation to travel between their homes in the West Bank and work in Israel. According to the report by Chaim Levinson in Haaretz yesterday, Palestinian laborers will not be allowed to board buses traveling directly between central Israel and the West Bank at the end of their work day.

The minister’s decision comes despite the fact that the Israel Defense Forces see no security risk in Palestinians traveling on Israeli buses, because the only ones to do so are those with entry and work permits who undergo careful security checks when they enter Israel. Thus, Ya’alon’s decision is purely a result of his having given in to the longtime pressure exerted on him by settlers demanding that Palestinians not be allowed to board “their” buses.

The minister’s decision reeks of apartheid, typical of the Israeli occupation regime in the territories. One of the most blatant symbols of the regime of racial separation in South Africa was the separate bus lines for whites and blacks. Now, Ya’alon has implemented the same policy in the occupied territories. In so doing, he justifies the claims of those who brand Israel internationally as an apartheid state.

Ya’alon’s decision also means a heavier burden on the Palestinians in the West Bank. Few among them are allowed to work in Israel, and those who are allowed to work in Israel face an exhausting, humiliating and painful experience on their way to and from work. Now, Ya’alon is making it even harder on them.

The defense minister made it his goal a long time ago to satisfy the settlers; to dance to their tune and make almost all their wishes and demands come true. He does this out of cynical personal and political considerations - to reinforce his status as a leader of the extreme right. The saga of his murky relations with the American administration following his disparaging remarks about Secretary of State John Kerry and other senior officials shows how much Ya’alon longs for the settlers’ embrace.

This time, Ya’alon is kowtowing to the settlers at the expense of the image of the State of Israel internationally and its remaining shreds of morality. And all by abusing a few tens of thousands of Palestinians permitted to make a paltry living in Israel.

Ya’alon’s has instructed the Civil Administration to prepare for the implementation of his decision until it can be done in practice. It would be better for him to annul it immediately and remove this shame from Israel.

http://www.haaretz.com/opinion/1.622908

NB : no paywall

[Jefferson23]

3. Best of luck getting him to annul it. n/t

[Jefferson23]

4. AG orders Ya'alon: Explain why Palestinians banned from Israeli-run buses in West Bank

As reported in Haaretz, defense minister gave in to settler pressure and and decided to prohibit Palestinian workers from re-entering West Bank on buses used by Israelis.

By Revital Hovel and Chaim Levinson | Oct. 27, 2014 | 5:44 PM

Attorney General Yehuda Weinstein on Monday demanded that Defense Minister Moshe Ya'alon explain his decision to ban Palestinian workers from Israeli-run bus lines in the West Bank, following publication of a report in Haaretz.

An official in Ya’alon’s bureau said on Sunday that the decision to prohibit Palestinian workers from using settlers’ bus lines had been made for security reasons only, and that its purpose is to protect citizens inside the Green Line.

According to the decision, from December on, Palestinian workers who enter Israel for work in Greater Tel Aviv and in the Sharon region will have to return to the West Bank via the Eyal checkpoint, and they will not be allowed to return on buses traveling to Ariel on the Trans-Samaria Highway.

The employee of the defense minister’s bureau said, “The decision will not prevent Palestinians from going to work and continuing to make a living. No one is stopping the Palestinians from continuing to work inside Israeli territory and reaching their destinations. The opposite is true. This is purely a security-related matter, and its purpose is to supervise the entries and exits into Israeli territory, thereby reducing the chances of terror attacks inside Israeli territory.”

http://www.haaretz.com/news/diplomacy-defense/1.623036

[geek tragedy]

5. Racist apartheid state showing its true nature. nt

[Jefferson23]

6. You mean the security concerns they're entitled to.