Jerusalem: A government plan to force Palestinians
and Israelis to use separate bus lines in the West Bank was suspended
within hours of being announced after critics likened the program to
apartheid.
The uproar was touched off by news media reports that
the Defence Ministry had begun a three-month pilot program preventing
thousands of Palestinian labourers - who live in the Israeli-occupied
West Bank but have permits to work in Israel - from riding Israeli
buses.
"Separating Palestinians and Jews on public transport is an
unnecessary humiliation and a stain on the state and its citizens,"
Isaac Herzog, the leader of the opposition and head of the Labor Party,
wrote on Facebook.
He warned that it would fan flames of hatred toward Israel around the world.
Speaking
in the Israeli parliament, Tamar Zandberg, an MP from the left-wing
Meretz party, said: "Racist segregation has another name: apartheid."
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