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http://www.maannews.net Israel frees Palestinians seized from bus
BETHLEHEM (Ma'an) -- Israel released the last of six activists who were arrested Tuesday after boarding an Israeli bus bound for Jerusalem, in an action inspired by the US civil rights movement. The six activists were pulled off the bus while a seventh was seized from near the checkpoint and released earlier. The activists who boarded the bus, five men and one woman, said their protest was inspired by American civil rights activists who rode to the south in the 1960s to carry out work against segregation and racial discrimination. In what appears to be a first, they gathered at a West Bank bus stop by the Psagot settlement and waited for an Israeli bus to pick them up, then tried to enter Jerusalem. The Palestine Solidarity Campaign said the campaign to board Israeli settler buses proved the West Bank is today just as segregated as the US south once was, if not more. "The Palestinian Freedom Riders, who boarded a settler bus on 15 November, have been inspired by Rosa Parks and others in the segregated US South," said Sarah Colborne, PSC director. "The US civil rights activists were protesting against policies of segregation, where black people were forced to sit at the back of buses. ... Palestinians are not even allowed to board settler-only buses, or even travel on the settler roads, built on stolen Palestinian land," she said in a statement. Palestinians in the West Bank ordinarily require a special permit to enter the holy city, unlike Israeli settlers living in the territory who can reach Jerusalem on Israeli buses that travel on Israeli-controlled roads. Israel says this measure is necessary to prevent would-be attackers from entering Jerusalem, but Palestinians accuse Israel of an apartheid regime that includes segregated bus and road systems, open to settlers but not West Bank residents. Before the protest, the activists said they expected to be arrested, but pledged the action would be repeated. "We expect this to be the first of many waves," activist Huwaida Arraf said. "We have many more people who want to ride."
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