Israeli police have detained six Palestinians dubbed West Bank Freedom Riders who boarded a Jerusalem-bound bus used by Jewish settlers.
The activists say they drew inspiration from 1960s US civil rights demonstrators who campaigned under the same name against segregated buses.
Palestinians from the West Bank are not allowed to cross into Jerusalem without Israeli permission.
Israel says such restrictions are for security reasons.
The group of six protesters gathered at a West Bank bus stop and waited for an Israeli bus to pick them up, then tried to enter Jerusalem, in what appears to be a first.
After being allowed to travel to an Israeli checkpoint at the edge of Jerusalem, the activists were eventually arrested when they refused to leave the bus.
The protesters say that by only serving Jewish settlements and not Palestinian areas in the West Bank, Israeli bus companies discriminate against them.
“These buses and this whole system is discriminatory to Palestinians,” said activist Fadi Quran, as he waited at the bus stop.
The West Bank Freedom Riders punched above their weight, drawing a lot of publicity for what was a relatively small event, reports the BBC’s Jon Donnison in the West Bank.
The comparison to the Freedom Riders of 1960s America seemed to capture the imagination as dozens of journalists gathered to see the small group board the bus, our correspondent says.
In actual fact, this was less a protest about segregation and more about freedom of movement, he adds.
There are around 500,000 Jewish settlers in the West Bank and East Jerusalem.
Settlements are illegal under international law although Israel disputes this.
Most of the rational arguments that justify Israel’s hold on the West Bank are derived from a sensitivity toward Israel’s security needs. Israel takes great pains to prevent anything that could threaten the lives of Israelis or her political legitimacy, oftentimes at great cost to both Israelis and Palestinians. For those Jews and Israelis seeking a two-state solution, Israel’s security is the primary precondition to any agreement.
This non-violent protest, then, should present a glimmer of hope for the peace process. These Palestinian protesters have learned the futility of violence and the utility of civil disobedience. If sit-ins remain the only thing that Israel will ever have to fear from any Palestinian, then there should be no excuse for negotiations to not proceed relatively smoothly.
Perhaps we should hope that this bus protest remains a paradigm to be followed by all Palestinians seeking freedom of movement and an improvement on their present situation in the West Bank, as it portends to serve toward the benefit of both Israeli security and Palestinian liberty, and that’s all we really want.
Do you agree?
Please post your thoughts in the comment section below.
Related articles
- Palestinian ‘Freedom Riders’ arrested on bus to Jerusalem – Washington Post (washingtonpost.com)
- Palestinian protesters dragged off Israeli bus riding into Jerusalem (telegraph.co.uk)
- Palestinian ‘freedom riders’ stopped at Israel’s separation wall (csmonitor.com)
- Palestinian ‘freedom riders’ board Israeli bus to Jerusalem (altahrir.wordpress.com)
- Palestinians board settlers’ bus (bbc.co.uk)
- Palestinian “Freedom Riders” Board Settlers’ Bus (socyberty.com)
I wholeheartedly agree that non-violent expression is absolutely a step forward, and the direction we are all hoping these issues will take. But that will require something wholly different than this protest, which sadly chooses a bus as its symbol when those same checkpoints were the sole measures bringing an end to Palestinian terror in the form of bus bombings ten years ago. What it will require is a generation of young Palestinians ready to demand the same services Israel provides to its citizens from their own government: education, democracy, employment opportunities, and yes, public transportation. For the present, when they are ready to hold their leaders to a standard that has an unequivocal intolerance for the kind of terrorism that makes checkpoints necessary, then they can move forward and make those demands in human rights.
I agree with all of those recommendations. The PA really must start demonstrating that it can be an independent, democratic government that can take care of its people.
However, even that would not make the change that these protesters seek to affect. The route of this bus will always be under Israeli authority as it runs from a settlement to Jerusalem. No matter how good the PA gets, it will be incapable of transporting Palestinians to and from [most of] Jerusalem. This peaceful protest is a good way of telling Israel that they are ready to comply with all Israeli laws except for the discriminatory ones. I just hope that these views are representative of the greater Palestinian population.
Wow, i am glad they are taking these kinds of protests instead of just violence-yet-one difference is-the reason they are checked at the border-is not racial they are not allowed to cross without being checked out of fear from suicide bombers-simple as that. Can anyone find a creative solution for this?
It’s a point well taken, Jacob, but it assumes that no matter what the PA will never prove themselves trustworthy enough for Israelis to allow Palestinians to have their own bus route in and out of all parts of Jerusalem; and that is where I think we miss the point. Palestinian society should be advocating an abdication of terror from their own leaders first, so that eventually Israel will have no reason to make distinctions between citizens and non-Citizens, and can trust their neighbors. The concept of limited mobility based on citizenship is nothing new to the world; here, the United States and Canada don’t allow just anyone to cross the border, and that has little to do with security and merely with quotas. The larger issues need to be addressed, and then Israel can coordinate with Palestinian leadership on cooperation over transportation.