On November 15, Palestinian activists will attempt to board segregated Israeli settler public transport headed to occupied East Jerusalem in an act of civil disobedience inspired by the Freedom Riders of the US Civil Rights Movement.
Fifty years after the US Freedom Riders staged mixed-race bus rides through the roads of the segregated American South, Palestinian Freedom Riders will be asserting their right for liberty and dignity by disrupting the military regime of the Occupation through peaceful civil disobedience. Organizers say this ride to demand liberty, equality, and access to Jerusalem is the first of many to come.
and they explain
“The Freedom Riders seek to highlight Israel’s attempts to illegally sever occupied East Jerusalem from the rest of the West Bank, and the apartheid system that Israel has imposed on Palestinians in the occupied territories.
Several Israeli companies, among them Egged and Veolia, operate dozens of lines that run through the occupied West Bank and East Jerusalem, many of them subsidized by the state,” said the Popular Struggle Coordination Committee said in a press release.
“They run between different Israeli settlements, connecting them to each other and cities inside Israel. Some lines connecting Jerusalem to other cities inside Israel, such as Eilat and Beit She’an, are also routed to pass through the West Bank.”
According to the group, Israelis suffer almost no limitations on their freedom of movement in the occupied Palestinian territory, and are even allowed to settle in it, contrary to international law.
Besides the fact that we Jews cannot go into Arab areas and many roads out here are segregated against Jewish vehicular traffic, the whole issue is security.
Arabs board Jewish buses and blow themselves up.
And since the buses go to Jewish communities, why would an Arab want to travel on them?
They have their wonderful sherut taxi system in addition to buses.
But if you read too the end, they admit it is but a ploy:
While it is not officially forbidden for Palestinians to use Israeli public transportation in the West Bank, these lines are effectively segregated, since many of them pass through Jewish-only settlements, to which Palestinian entry is prohibited by a military decree.
and Ta’anit Tzedek – Jewish Fast for Gaza
will stand in solidarity with them with a very special conference call on the day of the demonstration. You can join on Tuesday, November 15 at 12 pm Eastern Time in conversation with Ellen Broms, one of the original Freedom Riders for civil rights in the American South and currently an activist for a just peace in Israel/Palestine.
To participate in the call:
Dial Access Number: 1.800.920.7487
Enter Participant Code: 92247763#
There will be opportunities for questions and answers during the call.
Anybody participating in the call?
_________________
UPDATE
This today:^
The Ma'aleh Adumim municipality came to a precedent-setting agreement with its Palestinian employees last week, whereby it will recognize their rights in accordance with Israeli labor laws. Until now it was the Jordanian Labor Law from 1965 that was applied to the labor arrangements in this Jewish settlement beyond the Green Line, based on the local authority's legal argument that it is that law that applies in the territories.
The agreement is considered precedent-setting, because it relates for the first time to the routine employment conditions of Palestinian workers and their equalization to the conditions of Israel workers. In the agreement, the Ma'aleh Adumim municipality has taken upon itself a commitment to employ the workers under Israeli law and to apply to them the collective work agreements in force for municipal employees throughout the country. This means that henceforth they will enjoy social benefits that were not given to them previously. Moreover, the municipality will pay the workers NIS 1.5 million, for wage differentials and for lawyers' fees.
Segregation? Jim Crow? Apartheid?
What are these crazy lefties talking about?
UPDATE
...Israeli observers said that the analogy was not quite accurate. “If anything, it's the Jews who are victims of apartheid. None of us would even consider riding an Arab bus or even entering an Arab town, for fear we wouldn't come out alive. Such things have happened before. And 90% of the roads in Yesha are off limits to us, because we would be stoned and shot at if we rode on them.
“Meanwhile, Arabs freely move around in Israeli cities – in places like Kfar Sava and Ra'anana, there are often more Arabs than Jews in the malls and shops. And Arabs never have a problem even when they come into a Jewish town in Yesha to work. Can you even imagine what would happen if a Jewish plumber dared to take on a job in the Arab section of Hevron?”
^
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1 comment:
I suppose every person must read it.
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