Israel Matzav

'Palestinians' arrested trying to ride bus into Jerusalem

After an hour-long standoff at the Hizme checkpoint in northeastern Jerusalem, six 'Palestinians' were forcibly removed from an Egged bus on Tuesday night and barred from entering Jerusalem because they did not have the proper permits.

Event organizers compared themselves to the freedom riders from the 1960s US civil rights movement.

“We see this as the first of many freedom rides,” said activist Huwaida Arraf, as she stood in Ramallah surrounded by more than 50 reporters and photographers. Their goal, she said, was to highlight what she called Israel’s discriminatory bus system, which does not allow Palestinians without Israeli identification cards to freely ride public buses into east Jerusalem and many West Bank settlements.

Palestinians with the proper permits can use such buses to travel, but the activists said they believed they should enjoy the same rights as Israelis, who do not need such permits to ride the buses.

Although Palestinians need special permits to enter areas of Israel within the pre-1967 border as well, the activists chose to focus on the issue of freedom of movement in regions they believe are under “occupation” and should become part of a future Palestinian state.

Huweida Arraf, who was one of the six, is an American citizen (married to a Jew) who resides in Michigan and is one of the founders of the terror-supporting ISM movement. I wonder how many of these other 'Palestinians' are actually foreign residents.

Moreover, the real freedom riders were non-violent. There was no fear that they were suicide bombers as is the case with 'Palestinians' trying to enter Jerusalem.

Even more significant, if the 'Palestinians' ever get their wish and get to establish their reichlet in Judea and Samaria, Israel will be able to ban all 'Palestinians' completely except those who have visas, as is customary at borders between states. The only way the 'Palestinians' ought to have a right to enter Jerusalem would be if we annexed all of Judea and Samaria, and they were therefore citizens of Israel.

Let's go to the videotape.



The bus driver told the JPost that he didn't know who the 'Palestinians' were or he would not have stopped for them, as six buses that passed before him did.

Read the whole thing.

It's amusing (and a little sad) that the JPost has no clue who Haggai Segal is. Segal is a long-time correspondent for Arutz Sheva and was part of the 'Jewish underground' in the 1980's. He wrote a book about his experiences, which was translated into English as Dear Brothers.

Labels: Egged bus company, Israeli checkpoints

posted by Carl in Jerusalem @ 9:31 AM