[IsraelTimes] Defense Minister Moshe Ya'alon has reportedly decided to implement a policy that will effectively prevent West Bank Paleostinian workers from riding in buses with Israeli settlers to reach their jobs in Israeli cities.
Ya'alon told settlement leaders that under a new policy, Paleostinians will only be able to return to the West Bank through the Eyal checkpoint near Qalqilya, out of the way of most major settlements, the Israeli daily Haaretz reported Sunday.
Paleostinian workers are required to leave through Eyal, where they undergo security checks before entering Israel, but they are currently allowed to return home through any checkpoint, which enables them to ride on the same buses as Israeli settlers
B'Tselem, a left-wing Israeli NGO,
| ...need anything more be said? |
panned the move and called on Ya'alon to stop hiding behind pretenses and "admit this military procedure is thinly veiled pandering to the demand for racial segregation on buses."
| About half of Israeli Jews come from the Arab world, so race can't possibly be the issue. Try religious segregation, dood. |
Ya'alon's new order seems to fly in the face of IDF policy, which has allowed Paleostinian workers to ride on the same buses as settlers for the last three years, since Major General Nitzan Alon, then commander of the Judea and Samaria Division and now head of the IDF's Central Command, decided to do away with the separate transportation systems and allow the Paleostinians to ride alongside Israelis.
| Oh. It's a recent IDF policy that's being thrown away. In other words, the experiment didn't work. Got it. |
The IDF has said that the shared buses do not pose a security threat, as all Paleostinians go through security checks.
While the settlers have come under harsh criticism for demanding segregated buses, Jewish residents of the area have contended that they do not feel safe and that Jewish women regularly experience sexual harassment at the hands of Paleostinian riders.
| Whether it's a different kind of jihad for some, or just continuing the behaviours they're accustomed to at home, they spoilt it for the rest. |
Benny Katzover, head of the Samaria Settlers' Committee, has said that the decision to allow Paleostinians to ride the bus with settlers was a politically motivated move to harm the settlers. |