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ByMichael Schaeffer Omer-Man

|Published October 26, 2014Segregating the evening commute to the West Bank

Jews and Palestinians who commute from the West Bank to work in central

Israel each day will soon ride separate buses home. Lets not give too much

credit to Defense Minister Moshe Yaalon, however. The decision to segregatethe evening commute wasnt all that creative. He only completed his

predecessors decision to segregate the morning commute.

Palestinian workers wait in line to board an Israeli bus line meant for Palestinians onlyafter crossing the Eyal checkpoint from the West Bank into Israel proper. (Photo byActivestills.org)Its not really segregation. Not on paper at least. Or at least the paper doesnt use

the word segregation. In practice, however,people of one national origin will not beallowed to ride on the same bus lines as people of another national originfor thebenefit and at the request of one group, at the expense and against the desires ofthe other. Call that what you will.Heres how it works. Israeli Defense Minister Moshe Yaalon, the de facto and de jure

sovereign ruler of the West Bank, could have easily ordered his generals to revise

Israeli military law to legally ban Palestinians from riding on the same buses as theirJewish Israeli neighbors. (Its important to remember at this junction, no punintended, that we are talking about two groups of people who live in the same place
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the West Bank and who each day commute back and forth to their workplaces inthe same place central Israel.)If that military order had been issued so explicitly, however, it would actually becalled segregation and understood to be segregation by the general public, which atleast in theory,sometimesopposes segregation. If the defense minister had written

such an order it probably would have even used the Hebrew word hafrada, whichinconveniently means both separation and segregation. That wouldnt have lookedgood. So Yaalon found another way, one that didnt require him to use such politically

loaded words.Read more on Palestinian laborers working in IsraelInstead, the defense minister ordered that Palestinian commuters return to theirWest Bank homes through a specific, dedicated checkpoint a different checkpointthan the Jewish commuters with whom they shared their evening bus rides until now.Technically speaking, Palestinians with valid work permits are still allowed to ride

Israeli buses; they just arent allowed to go through the checkpoints through whichthose buses pass. Which means they will have to travel a different route, andtherefore, ride separate buses.Lets not give too much credit to Yaalon, however. The decision to segregate the

evening commute wasnt all that creative. He was only completing his predecessors

decision tosegregate the morning commute.See more photos of the segregated checkpointhere.
http://972mag.com/poll-israelis-support-discrimination-against-arabs-embrace-the-term-apartheid/58258/http://972mag.com/poll-israelis-support-discrimination-against-arabs-embrace-the-term-apartheid/58258/http://972mag.com/poll-israelis-support-discrimination-against-arabs-embrace-the-term-apartheid/58258/http://972mag.com/the-wall-10-years-on-part-8-a-working-class-under-siege/47303/http://972mag.com/the-wall-10-years-on-part-8-a-working-class-under-siege/47303/http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-4351368,00.htmlhttp://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-4351368,00.htmlhttp://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-4351368,00.htmlhttp://972mag.com/photos-israels-new-palestinian-only-segregated-bus-lines/67068/http://972mag.com/photos-israels-new-palestinian-only-segregated-bus-lines/67068/http://972mag.com/photos-israels-new-palestinian-only-segregated-bus-lines/67068/http://972mag.com/photos-israels-new-palestinian-only-segregated-bus-lines/67068/http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-4351368,00.htmlhttp://972mag.com/the-wall-10-years-on-part-8-a-working-class-under-siege/47303/http://972mag.com/poll-israelis-support-discrimination-against-arabs-embrace-the-term-apartheid/58258/


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Palestinian workers board a bus at the Eyal checkpoint, March 4, 2012. (Photo byActivestills.org)On the sidelines of Yaalons decision, an argument took place between two people in

uniform about whether the segregation is necessitated or even motivated bysecurity. According to Maj.-Gen. Nitzan Alon, who happens to be the commander incharge of the Israeli armys entire operations in the West Bank (or in other words,

the occupation), Palestinian and Israeli commuters sharing buses poses no securityrisk,HaaretzreportedSunday. Another man in uniform, one who apparentlyhasneither name nor rank,declared that the only considerations in the new policy aresecurity considerations. Go figure.Dont expect a huge falloutThe new policy will have only a couple of effects, neither of which are significantenough to endanger the two-state solution or move a single foreign government tochange the course of their Mideast foreign policy.First and foremost, the new segregated evening commute will do exactly what it wasdesigned to: segregate the evening commute. Jewish settlers will be able to enjoytheir ride home from Tel Aviv through the fertile West Bank foothills of Palestinianolive country without the annoyance of having to listen to other commuters speaking

Arabic.HaaretzquotedMK Moti Yogev (The Jewish Home), a settler himself andmember of the Israeli parliaments ruling coalition, after riding one of the yet-to-be-segregated buses: Riding these buses is unreasonable. They are full of Arabs.
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The second consequence is just slightly more politically correct, or less, depending onhow you like your racism, civil rights and labor conditions. Palestinian laborers, whoare forbidden from remaining inside Israel proper at night, will be forced to takelonger routes home to their families every evening. Already, they arrive at thecheckpoint before the crack of dawn in order to make it to work in the morning. Just

another hardship of the occupation nothing to write to the UN about.AsAmjad Iraqi wrote here on +972when the morning buses were segregated lastyear:This is certainly not the worst case of state-sanctioned discrimination in theOccupied Territories, and it wont be the last. What makes the bus case notable,

however, is that it starkly presents the pervasiveness of the states segregationistmentality by evoking the memory of the infamous buses under the Jim Crow laws ofthe southern United States.On a related note, Arab minority rights organization Adalahfiled a lawsuitagainst

the segregation of an Israeli youth soccer league along Jewish-Palestinian lines. Thedecision to segregate the Jewish and Arab youth teams into different leagues wasapparently made in response to complaints by Jewish parents, according to astatement by Adalah.Related:Palestinian-only buses serve to incentivize segregationPhotos: Israels Palestinian only segregated bus linesWest Bank and East Jerusalem buses are already segregatedFor additional original analysis and breaking news, visit +972 Magazine'sFacebook

pageor follow us onTwitter.Our newsletter features a comprehensive round-up ofthe week's events. Sign uphere.
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