BICOM

A proposed pilot scheme which would have seen Palestinians working in Israel travelling back to the West Bank on separate busses from Israeli settlement residents was suspended yesterday.

Israel’s Defence Minister Moshe Ya’alon had agreed to the plan for a three-month trial period which would have required Palestinian workers with permits to work in Israel, to leave and then re-enter the West Bank via the same check point. It would have effectively stopped them from boarding regular Israeli busses into the West Bank which are not required to stop at check points.

Ya’alon said that the scheme was necessary purely from a security perspective. He told a Knesset committee last October when first proposing the idea, that he had “no intention” of prohibiting Palestinians from using public transport, but that the tense situation on the busses meant that “you are guaranteed a terror attack.”

With the scheme due to begin its trial phase yesterday morning though, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu announced that it would not take place. A spokesman said, “The proposal is unacceptable to the prime minister. He spoke with the defence minister this morning and it was decided that the proposal will be frozen.”

The plan had been subject to widespread criticism from across the political spectrum. Zionist Union leader Isaac Herzog said yesterday that it would have been “a stain on the face of the country.” Meanwhile, President Reuven Rivlin, a former Likud MK was unequivocal in his criticism, saying that he “welcomed halting the process that could have led to an unthinkable separation between bus lines for Jews and Arabs,” which goes “against the very foundations of the State of Israel.” He added, “It is important we remember that our sovereignty obligates us to prove our ability to live side by side.” Former Likud Minister Gideon Saar said that the scheme was “wrong, and causes great damage to the settlement [project] in Judea and Samaria [West Bank] and to Israel’s image abroad.”