Israeli prime minister calls off West Bank bus segregation

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Wednesday overturned a ban on Palestinians riding the same buses as Jewish settlers, a measure condemned by rights campaigners as “ethnic separation”. The three-month pilot project barring Palestinian workers from returning home from Israel to the West Bank on Israeli buses began on Wednesday morning after approval from hardline Defence Minister Moshe Yaalon. A travel clampdown, demanded by settlers for years on security grounds, would have significantly extended the Palestinians’ commute time. Tens of thousands of Palestinians travel each day to work in Israel, mainly in construction.

[The project] could have led to an unthinkable separation between bus lines for Jews and Arabs.

Israeli President Reuven Rivlin

Army radio said the ban had been opposed by senior officers, who said the presence of many Palestinians on those buses made the vehicles a less likely target for militant attack. Israel’s government, which was sworn in on May 14, has shifted to the right by giving increased prominence to Naftali Bennett’s far-right Jewish Home party, which opposes a Palestinian state and strongly backs settlement activity. However, during a Wednesday meeting European Union foreign policy chief Federica Mogherini, Netanyahu renewed his commitment to a two-state solution of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

I don’t support a one-state solution, I don’t believe that’s a solution at all, I support the vision of two states for two peoples.

Benjamin Netanyahu, Israeli Prime Minister

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