Driving home the racial divide

This posting has these items:
1) The National: Bus segregation is one aspect of Israeli apartheid, ‘segregated transport once more becomes a symbol of extreme prejudice against a subjugated people’;
2) RT: Israel Apartheid? Palestinians to be banned from West Bank settlers’ buses, useful factual account;
3) Haaretz: American Jews: Challenge Israel’s segregated bus lines, appeal to American Jewish organisations to condemn segregation order;
4) Jewish Forward: Young Israelis Say No to Separate Buses, letter from Israeli labour party youth protesting at segregation;
5) Links;

Palestinian workers ride a Palestinian-only bus en route to the West Bank after working in Tel Aviv. The segregated line, run by Afikim,  was introduced in March 2013 following Jewish Israelis complaints at having to share buses with Arabs. Segregation has now been ordered for all bur routes into the West Bank. Photo by Ariel Schalit / AP

Bus segregation is one aspect of Israeli apartheid

By Nabila Ramdani, The National
November 04, 2014

It is nine years since Rosa Parks died, and a full 59 since she helped put a stop to segregated buses in the United States. In 1955, the 42-year-old African American refused to give up her seat to a white man and came to personify her country’s civil rights movement. Her defiance led to her arrest, but made her name a byword for freedom and justice, especially in the fight against inequality.

December 1, the date when the bespectacled seamstress refused to cede her seat on that Alabama bus, is officially ­Rosa Parks Day. It will have particular significance this year, because one of America’s closest allies will soon use its own buses to further a long-established system of apartheid. Israel, an alleged democracy and the recipient of billions in American financial and military aid, is, subject to objections, set to ban Palestinian workers from travelling to their West Bank homes on the same buses as Jewish settlers.

In practical terms, the move initiated by Israeli defence minister Moshe Ya’alon is a disaster. Impoverished Palestinians are forced to seek low-paid jobs in Israel, usually on building sites, and already face long commutes. I have often taken buses from Ramallah, on the West Bank, to Jerusalem and every time Arabs on board were made to feel like criminals.

Before getting on, we had to go through a gated corridor – the kind you find in high security prisons – and then a militarised check point. Heavily armed soldiers carried out body searches. Many would-be passengers were denied entry into Israel for no apparent reason. For the rest of us, a journey that should have taken 15 minutes could take up to two-and-a-half hours.

Now it will be unlawful for any Palestinians to use the Trans-Samaria bus, which travels across the occupied West Bank to the settlement of Ariel. Instead, they will have to pass through the Eyal checkpoint, miles away from where most of them live, and then continue on a segregated bus. This is despite the Israeli army insisting that the security measures they impose on Arab workers guarantee safe journeys and prevent illegal overnight stays.

Israel’s liberal Haaretz newspaper accused Mr Ya’alon of giving in to ultra-right wing settlers, who – in the fashion of so many apologists for racism – regularly compile “evidence” of Arabs upsetting fellow passengers. Moti Yogev, of the pro-settler Habayit Hayehudi party, put it more bluntly, saying such public transport should be Jews-only because: “Riding these buses is unreasonable. They are full of ­Arabs.”

A recent Haaretz editorial on the subject sums up the level of discrimination involved: “The minister’s decision reeks of apartheid, typical of the Israeli occupation regime in the territories.”

Buses which serve Orthodox areas in Israel are also gender segregated. The men are pretending not to see this woman making her protest in 2011. Photo by Emil Salman

Even the Israeli justice minister Tzipi Livni has used the word “apartheid” in relation to the buses, suggesting that Rosa Parks-style scenes have become commonplace. “It’s intolerable,” said Mrs Livni, referring to the settlers. “They claim that they need their own buses, because one Palestinian didn’t get up for a woman or an elderly person and another wasn’t nice to them. This is apartheid.”

It all adds to the endemically divided nature of Israel, a society uncomfortably similar to the racist Alabama of the 1950s, not to say apartheid-era South Africa.

Segregation has extended to Israel’s roads for years. This generally means modern highways for the Israelis and potholed tracks for the Palestinians. There is also the high security divide nicknamed “the apartheid wall” that runs for 690 kilometres. One of its main functions is to protect those responsible for the illegal land grabs and the demolition of Palestinian homes.

A new United Nations Human Rights Committee report calls on Israelis to end their institutionalised discrimination against Palestinians, citing 18 examples of the way they differentiate between the “Jewish and non-Jewish population” undermining the Palestinians’ right to self-determination.

Israel’s new president, Reuven Rivlin, last week admitted that “the Israeli Arab population has suffered for years from discrimination in budget allocation, education, infrastructure, and industrial and trade areas”.

Mr Ya’alon and his hardline cronies meanwhile try to justify the apartheid buses using the term “security”. It was the same cynically vague word that was bandied around during the summer war on blockaded Gaza.

As the oppression intensifies, and Israel proceeds with plans to build hundreds more illegal settler homes in East Jerusalem, while barring all worshippers from visiting the Al Aqsa Mosque for the first time since 1967, segregated transport once more becomes a symbol of extreme prejudice against a subjugated people.

More than half a century after Rosa Parks’s fabled commute, the world needs to evoke her legacy and demand an end to the injustice.

Nabila Ramdani is a French-Algerian journalist and broadcaster who specialises in Islamic affairs and the Arab world

On Twitter: @NabilaRamdani

Israel Apartheid? Palestinians to be banned from West Bank settlers’ buses

By RT
October 28, 2014

Israeli Defence Minister Moshe Ya’alon has decided Palestinians working in Israel should only be able to return home to West Bank via a single crossing and should not be allowed to ride the same buses as settlers.

Ya’alon issued a directive banning the workers from the buses during a meeting with settler leaders, who have long been seeking to ban Palestinians from Israel-run transportation in the West Bank, Haaretz reported on Sunday. The measure is scheduled to go into effect next month.

Palestinians queue for a Palestinian-only bus, May 2013. Photo by AFP.

Palestinians won’t be able to take buses going directly from central Israel to the West Bank. They will instead have to use other types of transportation to arrive at the Eyal Crossing, near Qalqilyah.

Palestinian workers have so far been obliged to cross into Israel via that particular checkpoint, but were free to return at multiple locations.

The Civil Administration has been tasked with providing separate buses for Palestinians, so as not to disrupt their movement to and from workplaces.

Supporters of the move argue it’s dictated by security concerns.

“Riding these buses is unreasonable. They are full of Arabs,” Moti Yogev, of the pro-settler Habayit Hayehudi party told Haaretz. “We have heard disturbing testimonies from girls who were harassed by Arabs during the bus ride.”

An Israeli human rights groups B’Tselem has slammed Ya’alon for his plan, saying he was “not content with merely moving Palestinians to the back of the bus, but means to keep them off buses altogether.”

“It is time to stop hiding behind technical arrangements such as the demand that Palestinians return to the West Bank through the same checkpoint they entered Israel, and admit this military procedure is thinly-veiled pandering to the demand for racial segregation on buses,” the group said in a press release.

It was Major General Nitzan Alon, now head of the IDF’s Central Command, who decided the Palestinians and the Israelis could ride the same buses three years ago. Alon believes Palestinian authorized workers pose no security threat as they have to receive their working permits and undergo scrutiny at checkpoints.

Speculations on the possibility of reverting to the separate transportation system have been around for some time. Israel’s Transportation Ministry said it was considering separate bus lines for Palestinians in November 2012.

When new bus lines connecting the West Bank with Israel were launched in March 2013, they sparked rumors that additional buses were introduced specifically for Palestinians. Transport officials denied that was the case.

American Jews: Challenge Israel’s segregated bus lines

Segregation was wrong in Birmingham, Alabama, and it is wrong in the West Bank. U.S. Jews’ proud record of fighting for civil rights demands we now address these unjust Israeli policies.

By Catie Stewart and Gabriel Erbs, Haaretz
November 04, 2014

The American Jewish community has a proud and celebrated history of activism in the civil rights movement of the 1950s and ‘60s. Rabbi Abraham Joshua Heschel famously marched with Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. in Selma, saying afterwards, “I felt my feet were praying.”

Young Jews comprised a large number of Freedom Summer activists fighting against racism and segregation in the South; some like Andrew Goodman and Michael Schwerner even gave their lives in the pursuit of racial equality. Even the threat of personal harm did not stop American Jews from acting on their values.

Jewish communal organizations often remind us that we have a proud, historical commitment to civil rights. By recounting our history of civil rights activism and our strong values of equality and justice, our communal leaders and organizations hope to inspire those same values in our generation. As J Street U leaders, we see our obligation to pursue social justice and civil rights side-by-side with our commitment to a just and secure future for the State of Israel. That work becomes far more challenging when the Israeli government undermines its own democratic precepts and runs counter to the values of the American Jewish community.

This week, Israeli Defense Minister Moshe Ya’alon announced a plan which would require Palestinians who work in Israel during the day to return home to the West Bank through a separate checkpoint than Israelis with the same commute. This will effectively segregate buses in the West Bank; keeping Palestinians off of buses used by Jewish settlers. And while Ya’alon cited “security concerns” as his rationale, the decision contradicts the IDF, which maintains that shared buses do not pose a threat to Israelis. Israel’s Justice Minister, Tzipi Livni, has said that if the policy is carried out, it will mean nothing less than “apartheid.”

By imposing the ban, Ya’alon, who once threatened to address the “Palestinian cancer” with “chemotherapy” – lines up with MK Moti Yogev, a settler himself, who recently said, “riding these buses is unreasonable. They are full of Arabs.” A settler group in Ariel also recently released a video and staged a protest demanding the racial segregation of buses. The video depicts a lone Jewish woman exiting a bus filled with Palestinian workers, and is captioned, “it’s not about racism, it’s about a simple question – would you be willing to go on a bus [packed with Arabs]?”

The idea of segregated buses should send chills down the spine of anyone who has ever witnessed or learned about apartheid South Africa’s separate bus system for whites and blacks, or the segregated Jim Crow-era American south. But sadly, this is just the latest in a long series of discriminatory acts and policies that define Israel’s occupation of the West Bank. It also marks the disturbing rise of influence of the settler movement in Israeli politics – and the government’s willingness to kowtow to their demands.

Since the busing decision was announced, only two major Jewish organizations – J Street and the Union for Reform Judaism – have spoken out publicly against bus segregation. We note positively that the Anti-Defamation League have also said that they will look into the matter, though they have not yet made a public statement.

If they are truly committed to both civil rights and Israel’s future, Jewish organizations cannot stay silent. The occupation is nightmarish for Palestinians; it also guarantees that Israelis cannot live with true security, stability, or international respect. That is the simple truth, and it isn’t changing. Segregated busing in the West Bank should serve as a wake up call that Israel’s future has been hijacked by a racist settler movement that cares only for its own continued presence in the West Bank. We must recognize that these segregationist policies are morally repugnant and destroy Israel’s image in the international arena, even among its usual friends.

When American Jewish leaders actually act on their values, it is a potent and invaluable antidote to discrimination within Israel, and all over the world. We saw this last year when the ADL lauded Israeli government efforts to address the scourge of gender-segregated buses. Groups like the American Jewish Committee have a long history of involvement in the civil rights movement in America and in challenging civil rights abuses across the globe. That makes their current silence even more deafening.

An urgent letter from the youth arm of the Israeli Labor party has called on the leaders of some of the most prominent institutions of the American Jewish community – the Conference of Presidents, the Jewish Federations of North America, AIPAC, and others – to speak out against segregation in Israel. This call must not go unheeded.

Segregation was wrong in Birmingham, Alabama, and it is wrong in the West Bank. Denying Palestinians civil rights and self-determination is wrong. The occupation, which began while Dr. King and Rabbi Heschel were alive, is also wrong. We must continue the Jewish communal legacy of fighting for civil rights – even when it means addressing unjust Israeli policies. J Street U is committed to seeing a reversal of this policy and will hold our communal organizations accountable to push for the same.

Gabriel Erbs is a senior at Portland State University and the Northwest Representative to the J Street U National Board. Catie Stewart is a junior at Brandeis University and the Northeast Representative to the J Street U National Board. Follow them on Twitter: @gabriel_erbs and @catrionastew.

Young Israelis Say No to Separate Buses

By Sigal Samuel, Jewish Forward
October 29, 2014

EXTRACT

Young Israelis don’t want separate bus lines for Palestinians — and they’re asking American Jews to ensure segregation never becomes a reality.

That’s the nutshelled version of a letter sent today by Young Israeli Labor, the official youth branch of the Labor Party, to the leaders of major American Jewish organizations including Abe Foxman (Anti-Defamation League), Malcolm Hoenlein (Conference of Presidents), Jeremy Ben-Ami (J Street), Eric Fingerhut (Hillel International) and Rabbi Rick Jacobs (Union for Reform Judaism).

The striking thing about this is not just the willingness of Israeli youth to speak out against segregated buses, but the fact that they’re turning to American Jewish leaders to appeal, on their behalf, to Israeli leaders — specifically, Prime Minister Netanyahu and Defense Minister Ya’alon. The subtext seems to be that they don’t feel they can make themselves heard (or heard successfully) in their own country without a powerful intermediary. We can chalk this up partly to their perception that “Ya’alon is caving in to a well-organized campaign of the extreme right, who hold powerful positions inside the Likud party.” Here’s the rest of their letter:

This unfortunate decision is a disastrous one in any respect. Apart from being a severely miserable decision in every moral aspect, it also adds a very powerful weapon to the arsenal of those seeking to undermine Israel as a Jewish and democratic state.

Side by side with you, we, the Young Israeli Labor, the official young branch of the Labor Party, lead an uncompromising struggle on Israel’s international standing. Exactly because of our love for Israel, we must at present do whatever it takes to stop this poor decision from realization.

I call upon you to turn to Israel’s Prime Minister, MK Netanyahu, and demand that he interferes in this matter and prevents Defense Minister Ya’alon from surrendering to the extremist right-wing in Israel, which is jeopardizing our continuing existence as a Jewish and democratic state.

Links

See also
Israel’s Palestinian-only buses draw accusations of segregation, apartheid, Washington Post, March 2013

Israel introduces ‘Palestinian only’ bus lines, following complaints from Jewish settlers, Haaretz, March 2013.

Palestinian ‘apartheid’ bus row escalates as Israeli minister Moshe Ya’alon ordered to explain ban

Decision by Israel’s defence minister has led to accusations of racial segregation despite official insistence that it is motivated by “security” concerns

Minister of Defense not content with moving Palestinians to the back of the bus, means to keep them off entirely, B’Tselem press release, October 26, 2014