The Daily Telegraph
Palestinians travelling to day jobs in central Israel from the West Bank are being urged to board special buses at a checkpoint instead of the regular services used by Israelis.
The scheme was drawn up by the Israeli transport ministry after residents in two Jewish settlements complained that Palestinian travellers on the Trans-Samaria road, also known as Highway 5, between the West Bank and Tel Aviv were a threat.
There were also reports of overcrowding and fights between Israeli and Palestinian passengers.
But some human rights groups called it "blatant racism" that resembled South African-style apartheid.
"They are institutionalising segregated services for Jews and non-Jews," said Ofra Yeshua-Lyth, an activist with Women For Civil Disobedience, an Israeli-Palestinian campaign group. "Many people don't class the Israeli situation as apartheid because for a long time, Israel refrained from the characteristics of petty apartheid, like separate roads, cafes and buses. This bus situation is a step in the direction of petty apartheid because people are being segregated in their daily activities." Avner Ovadia, a transport ministry spokesman, said there was no official ban on Palestinian workers travelling on public buses.
"Furthermore, the transport ministry is not authorised to stop any passenger travelling on these bus routes," he said.
But drivers with the Afikim bus company, which operates the Trans-Samaria route, said Palestinians attempting to use the regular services would be pointed towards a different bus.
"We are not allowed to refuse service and we will not order anyone to get off the bus, but from what we were told ... there will be checks at the checkpoint, and Palestinians will be asked to board their own buses," one driver told Ynet, an Israeli news website.
Fliers in Arabic advertising the service have been distributed at bus stops near Palestinian villages in the West Bank.
Yirsael Maidad, a spokesman for the Jewish Settlers Council, said Israelis felt justified in refusing to share buses with Palestinians. "It's not a racist thing but for some strange reason, Arabs blow themselves up in buses and Israelis find that very unnerving," he said. "If you were to ask some bright young radical, he would say forcing Arabs to ride Israeli buses would be a form of colonialism. Having their own buses should be very much welcomed as part of a state-building process."
Campaigners say troops began ordering Palestinians with Israeli work permits off buses after settlers made complaints last November. After witnessing one such incident, Ms Yeshua-Lyth lodged a report with Makhsom Watch, an Israeli group that monitors checkpoint incidents. She described how soldiers herded around 30 Palestinian workers from a bus travelling from Tel Aviv to the West Bank.
Palestinians say they have been forced to walk several kilometres to their homes or use expensive taxi services since the policy of removing them from buses began. An estimated 29,000 Palestinians travel to jobs in Israel every day, according to official figures.
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