Six people on a bus they were not allowed to ride because of racial discrimination.
The idea was amazing, touching, 50 years ago, and it still is today. The genius of the act is its simplicity.
Six Palestinians took the bus. Fadi Quran, Nadeem Al-Sharbate, Badee Dwak, Huwaida Arraf, Basel Al-Araj and Mazin Qumsiyeh.
Fadi is a graduate student. Mazin is a professor and historian. Huwaida is a leading activist and the cofounder of the Free Gaza movement.
They waited at a settlers-only bus station in the West Bank. Because even inside the tiniest remaining piece of occupied Palestine, Palestinians aren’t allowed to take certain buses, drive on certain roads, access entire towns.
So they waited at a settlers-only bus station. With keffiyehs, lest you think they were being stealthy. And t-shirts saying “Freedom”. “Justice”. And “We Shall Overcome”. In English and Arabic.
The first bus driver didn’t stop for them. Nor did the second. Or the third.
Eventually one stopped, they got on board. The driver, freaking out, called the Israeli army. Palestinians on a Jewish-only bus! Aberration! How dare they!
The bus pulled in at the Hizmeh checkpoint, one of many that separate the occupied West Bank from internationally-recognized occupied Jerusalem.
The Freedom Riders refused to get off, asserting their right to go to Jerusalem.
The army violently dragged them from the bus and arrested them.
I don’t know about all but I know that at least some of them actually have the residency papers that allow them to go to Jerusalem.
No, that’s not why they were arrested.
It is because they defied a segregated system that determines where you can go, what streets you can walk, what buses you can ride based on your ethnicity.
Huwaida, Mazin, Basel, Badee, Nadeem, and Fadi were later released.
Many more Freedom Riders will undoubtedly follow.
Photos are from the International Solidarity Movement.
The idea was amazing, touching, 50 years ago, and it still is today. The genius of the act is its simplicity.
Six Palestinians took the bus. Fadi Quran, Nadeem Al-Sharbate, Badee Dwak, Huwaida Arraf, Basel Al-Araj and Mazin Qumsiyeh.Fadi is a graduate student. Mazin is a professor and historian. Huwaida is a leading activist and the cofounder of the Free Gaza movement.
They waited at a settlers-only bus station in the West Bank. Because even inside the tiniest remaining piece of occupied Palestine, Palestinians aren’t allowed to take certain buses, drive on certain roads, access entire towns.
So they waited at a settlers-only bus station. With keffiyehs, lest you think they were being stealthy. And t-shirts saying “Freedom”. “Justice”. And “We Shall Overcome”. In English and Arabic.
The first bus driver didn’t stop for them. Nor did the second. Or the third.
Eventually one stopped, they got on board. The driver, freaking out, called the Israeli army. Palestinians on a Jewish-only bus! Aberration! How dare they!
The bus pulled in at the Hizmeh checkpoint, one of many that separate the occupied West Bank from internationally-recognized occupied Jerusalem.The Freedom Riders refused to get off, asserting their right to go to Jerusalem.
The army violently dragged them from the bus and arrested them.
I don’t know about all but I know that at least some of them actually have the residency papers that allow them to go to Jerusalem.
No, that’s not why they were arrested.
It is because they defied a segregated system that determines where you can go, what streets you can walk, what buses you can ride based on your ethnicity.
Huwaida, Mazin, Basel, Badee, Nadeem, and Fadi were later released.
Many more Freedom Riders will undoubtedly follow.
Photos are from the International Solidarity Movement.
4 comments:
The Palestinian "freedom riders" were a group of 6 pro-Palestinian activists who initially claimed that Israeli buses discriminate against them because the buses pick up Israeli citizens living in the West Bank but refuse to pick up Palestinians of the West Bank.
They appeared at an Egged bus stop in the West Bank where the bus driver obligingly stopped and picked them all up, along with coterie of press in their wake, some of whom had to catch the second bus. They were, disappointingly to them, I'm sure, not refused a seat on the bus. Your facts suggest that they were not picked up by the first few buses, something not claimed the day of this circus by either the activists or the mob of reporters with them.
The activists rode the Egged bus to the outskirts of Jerusalem where the checkpoint outside of the city lies. Citizens of Israel are permitted entry. Non-citizens are permitted entry only with a work pass, visa, or approved documentation permitting them to seek medical attention, or deal with legal issues in the city, or visit relatives, etc. The 6 activists, of course, had no such documents. They are citizens of an enemy entity, the Palestinian Authority, comprised of Fatah, Hamas and other groups, who were during this time engaged in almost daily shelling and missile launches against Israel. Earlier this year, a bus stop was the object of a bombing which killed one person and wounded others. Another bomb was set at a major traffic artery but discovered by a city employee, who merely had his arm blown off---which prevented carnage during rush hour due to his early discovery of the device. At the checkpoint, the army spent an hour trying to reason with the activists, asking them to leave the bus. They refused, stating that they had a "right" to stay on the bus and enter Jerusalem. Finally,the bus driver turned off the engine, and the Israelis got off and boarded a different bus to proceed to Jerusalem. The activists were arrested.The Israelis on board the bus had offered no objection to the Palestinians riding the Egged bus either, until the delay at the checkpoint. One irritated woman opined, "[We] have issues with transportation because of fear of terror attacks. These are buses that are protected against stones and bullets because of Palestinian violence. It's not "racism"--it's security. When I can walk freely in Ramallah with my children, they can ride our buses (into Jerusualem)."
Another Jewish passenger engaged the activists in dialogue. He asked them, "Can I go on a bus in Ramallah as a Jew?" They told him that he could not do so. "This is not a Martin Luther King bus," the Jewish passenger suggested. The Palestinian activists conceded the comparison was not exact. Their point, they said, was that Jerusalem belongs to the Palestinians, not Israel, and therefore they should have the right to travel to the city freely.
The bus system is NOT segregated--I ride it all the time. It carries both Jews and Arabs. I've never taken the buses in the West Bank, but it's the same bus system. Clearly these Palestinians were allowed to ride the bus. Had any of the activists had Jerusalem residency papers, then according to the news stories at the time of the incident, they failed to present them.
Their point on the day of this stunt was not that the bus system discriminated (an earlier claim, proved wrong by their ride) but that they had a "right" to enter Jerusalem without proper paperwork.
They do not. So long as Palestinians fire missiles and mortars at Israelis and so long as Palestinian bombs continue kill and maim people in Jerusalem, there will be checkpoints. Claiming that running the checkpoint is "discrimination" is completely bogus.
Sorry to run on so long, but some clarification of the goals and statements of the activists was in order. When my son can ride the bus to work without his mother fearing it will blow up, then we can dispense with checkpoints. I look forward to such a future where we can shop in each other's malls and ride each other's buses without fear.
Hi Sarah,
Well a lot of this is very subjective. In fact the presence of settlers in the West Bank, at the behest of the Palestinians, and their daily deeds - killing, destruction, etc - is a greater crime than anything you mention.
I am not going to list the list of crimes committed by Israelis against Palestinians as of late.
But let me stick to a couple of points.
- Egged buses aren't segregated, no. In Israel. But it's silly to say that, when a bus is coming from a Jewish-only settlement, that it will be carrying Palestinians on board. It is a bus made to connect the segregated housing units to Jerusalem. It's ludicrous to act as if it were just another bus.
- Palestinians aren't allowed to go on the roads the bus takes to begin with! as they take the settler-only roads. (more correctly it's the Israeli-yellow-plated-cars only roads, you'll say - which is by far no excuse).
- The first couple of buses refused to let them on, according to Jewish Voices for Peace who had someone present and write a narrative.
- There are no ID checks in the bus, of course, and given the ethnic mix, it's more difficult to tell a Palestinian than it was, say, for American segregated-bus drivers to tell black people.
- At least one activist has a Jerusalem ID, and one has Israeli citizenship. They should've been allowed to continue to Jerusalem. Your assumption that "they failed to present documentation" is fallacious. It's just an assumption from you, not a fact.
- I have personally taken the Ramallah bus in the company of Israeli Jews, yes.
- The reason why Israelis aren't allowed to go to Ramallah is Israeli law, not Palestinian discrimination. Massive difference here, Sarah.
- Jerusalem is indeed occupied, under international law. And it DOES belong to the Palestinians.
The checkpoints and the segregation won't ease your fears, I'm afraid, Sarah. Only a just settlement and freedom for all will.
Post a Comment