By Maureen Clare Murphy
November 17, 2011
“It’s just because I’m
Palestinian” shouts a young woman toward the Israeli soldiers dragging her from
a bus that serves Israel’s settler population and travels its
segregated roads.
As The Electronic Intifada reported Tuesday,
several Palestinian activists were arrested after attempting to travel on
segregated Israeli public bus number 148 without Israeli permits.
Israel has imposed a
movement restriction regime that severely limits Palestinians’ freedom of
movement for the benefit of the population of its illegal settlements. Approximately 500,000
Israelis live in Jewish-only settlements in the occupied West Bank. According to the Israeli human rights group B’Tselem,
Israel has taken control of approximately 50 percent of the land of the West
Bank for the establishment, expansion and servicing of settlements ~ in
contravention of international humanitarian law, including the Fourth
Geneva Convention.
Palestinian Freedom
Riders, taking inspiration from the US civil rights movement that challenged
segregation in the US south, boarded buses in an attempt to travel from the
occupied West Bank to Jerusalem ~ off limits to the vast majority of
Palestinians living under occupation.
Video shot by Anne
Paq with the ActiveStills
collective shows activists boarding the bus and Israeli forces asking them in
broken Arabic for their travel permits. The soldiers then drag the activists
from their seats.
“Why does he have ask me
about the permits and not ask the settlers about the permits? This is
discrimination, this is apartheid,” says one of the Freedom Riders as he
passively resists being dragged off the bus.
“I’m a Freedom Rider, I
just want to go to Jerusalem!” shouts one activist as she is dragged from
the bus.
Maureen Clare Murphy is
the managing editor of The Electronic Intifada and an activist based in
Chicago.
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