First international blunder of Bibi's new government
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's zigzagging over the plan to separate Jews and Palestinian workers traveling to the territories demonstrates the strong hold of the settlers over his fragile coalition.
“A government was elected. It has a clear agenda, which is the security of its citizens throughout the country, including in Judea and Samaria. People sitting in the cafes on Shenkin Street in Tel Aviv must not be allowed to set the country’s agenda.” That was part of a response by the Likud’s new Knesset member Oren Hazan to a decision to suspend a pilot program segregating Jews and Palestinians on buses in the West Bank.
Palestinians who enter Israel for work now can return directly to the West Bank using public transportation. According to the new plan, they would have to get off the buses for a security check when they re-enter the territories. What these instructions effectively do is create a situation in which Palestinian commuters are forced to leave their buses, while Jewish commuters can continue unhindered.
Apart from claims of apartheid, the program is a case of abuse of Palestinian workers returning home after a long day's work, even after they spent hours waiting at checkpoints on their way into Israel. This is especially abusive considering the position of the departing chief of the Central Command, Maj. Gen. Nitzan Alon, that such commutes home by Palestinian workers pose no security threat to Israel, since anyone entering Israel must in any case first receive official permits from the police and Shin Bet, and must even undergo a full body search upon entry.
Hazan, a resident of the settlement town of Ariel in Samaria, has spent the past few years at the forefront of a group of activists from the Yesha Council (settlement umbrella organization), fighting to introduce the segregation of Jews from those Palestinians who take public transportation home from work in Israel. And Hazan isn’t the only member of the Likud Party in this group. The main argument being made by the people leading the fight for segregation is that it is intended to prevent attacks against Jews and thereby increases personal security. They rely on the testimonies of passengers, who claim that they have been victims of attacks by Palestinians on an almost daily basis.
