Less than 24 hours after it was first introduced, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Defence Minister Moshe Ya’alon today suspended a new initiative to separate Israeli and Palestinian bus travel in the Occupied West Bank.
According to Ha’aretz, under the new system “Palestinian workers would have to return from Israel to the West Bank via the same checkpoint they left and will not be allowed to ride Israeli bus lines.”
The suspension follows an outpouring of concern from Israeli politicians over the damage such a move would do to Israel’s already deteriorating international image.
Zionist Union leader and opposition head Isaac Herzog claimed that “separating Palestinians and Jews on public buses is a warrantless humiliation and a stain on…the country and its citizens.” He added that it would “cause unnecessary harm to Israel’s image at such a sensitive time.”
Former Likud Minister of Interior Gideon Sa’ar said the decision “causes great harm to the settlement [enterprise] in Judea and Samaria [West Bank] and to Israel’s image around the world.”