Assistant Attorney General Dina Zilber sent a letter to the Defense Minister seeking clarification regarding the recent ruling by Defense Minister Moshe Ya’alon prohibiting PA (Palestinian Authority) laborers working in the center of the country to ride back to Yehuda and Shomron in buses with Jewish residents from those areas.

Zilber wishes to understand why the senior official has announced this ruling and what the legal support his legal experts are using to back the segregation policy.

The defense minister was responding to mounting complaints from Jewish travelers that the Arab laborers often harass Jewish passengers in addition to filling the buses far beyond their capacity. They also point out that often, school children return on these bus lines without an adult escort and no one is conducting a security inspection of the PA residents prior to boarding the buses, resulting in an unwanted situation.

The new ruling by Ya’alon compels the Arab laborers to report to a Kalkilye area checkpoint for inspection and from there they may disperse to their homes in PA autonomous areas. The new ruling is expected to go into effect in the near future. In interim, more and more Jewish residents are opting to hitchhike rather than travel on the buses with PA residents.

One official points out that while the left-wing is outraged over discrimination against the PA residents, preferring to ignore security concerns, they feel there is also an economic factor since the State of Israel has chosen to subsidize these bus lines for the citizens of Israel and there is no sane reason in the world that the PA residents should enjoy a 50% fare reduction since they are not citizens of the state.

(YWN – Israel Desk, Jerusalem)