Israel’s attorney general said he would ask the country’s defense minister to explain his proposed order banning thousands of Palestinian workers from the Israeli public buses they ride to and from their homes in the West Bank.
The proposed edict by Defense Minister Moshe Ya’alon, who has authority over security issues, comes after a request by Jewish settlers who ride the buses. It also comes amid heightened tensions between Israelis and Palestinians after this summer’s Gaza War and other violence.
Every day, thousands of Palestinians enter Israel for work from the West Bank, territory Israel captured from Jordan in the 1967 war and which Palestinians want as part of their future state.
Under the new guidelines announced Oct. 26 and slated to take effect in December, all Palestinian workers must return to the West Bank through one crossing, the Eyal crossing located near Kalkilya in central Israel, and continue on separate buses to their homes from there. They would be banned from the more direct and convenient Trans-Samaria bus. Palestinian workers are not allowed to stay overnight in Israel.
Attorney General Yehuda Weinstein called on Yaalon to explain the directive by Nov. 9, according to Israel’s Justice Ministry. — jta & ap