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.
Samira Ibrahim is 25 and looks younger. Actually she reminded me of those chatty girls who skipped class at Cairo U back in the day.
