The Palestinians-only buses are making global headlines, though American broadcasters don’t quite know how to handle the story. Yesterday afternoon on CNN, John Berman described the situation as a “PR” problem. As if the optics are the only real issue, not the stark apartheid.
On NBC, Martin Fletcher offers the same analysis:
For a country fighting allegations of racism and apartheid against its Arab citizens, introducing a “Palestinian-only” bus line for workers entering Israel from the West Bank may not be the smartest move.
Writes a friend: Not one Palestinian quoted. Oh, and notes the article, Palestinians need to find a Rosa Parks. Well, they had freedom rides over a year ago. And why is it all a responsibility of the Palestinians? The Israelis are the ones in control. But for Fletcher this is all part of the PR battle of handing another ”weapon” to critics of Israel.
Those earlier Freedom Riders, from Washington Post’s Joel Greenberg, November 2011:
Evoking the nonviolent tactics of the American civil rights movement, six Palestinian activists boarded an Israeli commuter bus linking Jewish settlements in the West Bank to Jerusalem on Tuesday and were arrested as they tried to ride through an Israeli checkpoint on the outskirts of the city.
The group, part of a loose network of independent activists in the West Bank, called themselves “Freedom Riders,” taking the name of civil rights activists who in the 1960s challenged segregation on interstate buses in the southern United States and were attacked by violent mobs.
Reminds me of an interview I saw (on Sky News!) with some hasbarist. The (second) Qana massacre, which killed 28 people, 16 of them children was, he said, ‘a tragedy’.
For Israel.
this is apartheid israel practising segregation. what do you expect, you have two groups of people the illegal israeli settlers on occupied Palestine land under israeli civilian law and you have Palestinians under Martial law.
then we have the idf protecting the illegal settlers giving them carte blanche to terrorized the Paletinians. Why? quite simple actually, to push the Palestinians out of Area C about 60 % of the West Bank and placing them in bantustans.
CNN calling Palestinians-only buses a PR problem while it is actually a part of the overall ethnic cleansing program that’s been going on for years.
the supporters of israel and its policies will have a special place for them in future history books, where our children will look back in disgust at such a barbaric colonial state that was called israel.
I get the impression Israel is just testing to see how far it can go.
I also believe these actions , increasing in illegality and immorality, are simply steps on the road to full scale deportation of Palestinians.
There are Jews (millions) who support this idea.
Namely a State where no one but Jews live.
Enjoy while you can guys.
The Messiah is coming in the shape of a One State Solution.
The Greater Israel plan will never make it to first base.
Stack the deck, and stack the deck, and stack the deck again.
Fortunately, if its just a PR problem it can be solved with a suitable soundbite. Perhaps Mondoweiss reader can help out our Israeli friends who sadly, for no fault of their own, often lack subtlety in the wordsmithing department. My suggestion is:
We can’t give them their own country but at least we’ve given them their own bus.