Palestinian Bus-Riding Gimmick to Prove Israeli ‘Apartheid’ Ends up Showing…No Apartheid
- Posted on November 16, 2011 at 6:00am by
Sharona Schwartz
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A contrived effort to engineer a Rosa Parks moment fall flat Tuesday when a handful of Palestinian activists set out to board an Israeli bus that they say services only West Bank Jewish settlers. In trying to create a comparison between the U.S. civil rights movement and the Palestinian predicament, they hoped to prove the long-standing claim of Palestinians and their international supporters that Israel is an “apartheid” state.
Their contention was quickly debunked when the half-dozen “Palestinian Freedom Rides” activists – trying to imitate the 1960s American Freedom Rides – freely boarded a bus heading from a West Bank settlement toward Jerusalem. Israeli buses are not segregated.
From the LiveStream feed provided by the protesters throughout the afternoon, it was clear there were many more photographers on board than passengers taking part, despite the advance advertising on pro-Palestinian websites. AFP reported 100 reporters were either on or outside the bus. The activists sported black and white keffiyehs and at least one wore a t-shirt promoting the boycott of Israeli products.
Israeli border police knew about the plans and were ready to face any trouble. At one point, an activist posted a message on the group’s Twitter feed pointing to the irony of Palestinians being escorted by Israeli military vehicles.
Israeli passengers had initially been on the bus (again – buses aren’t segregated), but got off when it was boarded by Israeli border police checking if the passengers had Jerusalem entry permits.
The Media Line reports the Israeli passengers mostly ignored the protesters without incident:
Palestinians not only want the Israelis to go back to pre-1967 Israel, but object in the meantime to what they say is a policy of segregation that has created separate roads and transportation networks. Israel says these are needed to protect its citizens against Palestinian terror attacks.
“If I got on one of their buses they would slaughter me,” said an Israeli who would only give his first name, Elhanan. “It’s a gimmick. The Arabs ride on our buses all of the time.”
AFP reports:
The first few buses simply refused to stop for the group, though it was difficult to tell whether they drove on because of the media mosh-pit or to deny the Palestinians service.
There appeared to be major factual discrepancies between Twitter messages from the activists on board and the video they were streaming live.
At 3:30pm, one Palestinian passenger tweeted “border police are harassing Palestinian, Israeli and international activists on board Freedom Rides bus,” but a LiveStream feed showed a controlled situation on board, including a border policeman simply asking questions. The main excitement seemed to be from the crush of photographers crowding the aisles.
At 4:02pm a woman, Huwaida Araf, screamed, “We are Palestinian freedom riders! We are not leaving this bus!” Shortly after, she left the bus courtesy of Israeli military police.
A fellow activist posted a message that Araf was “violently arrested while trying to ride a bus into Jerusalem.” The tweet included a photo that does not appear to be violent. (Link to the photo is HERE.) What it does show is the woman’s arms being held, presumably by police, as she is led away. Earlier, another protester lied on the floor of the bus and refused to get up, a tactic that’s also been seen at American “Occupy” events.
At 4:10pm, the protesters tweeted, “Israeli army is attacking the Freedom Riders, trying to remove them from the bus with violence.” But at the same time, their live video reporter said she was turning off the camera to conserve batteries because “nothing is happening.”
What was obvious on the live feed was that during practically the entire event, one or another of the protesters was giving yet another interview. It was plainly evident to see that even while police were checking IDs, protesters continued giving interviews.
In those interviews, protesters said repeatedly that they were about to be arrested and that the Israelis “are going to use violence against us.” The violence charge didn’t seem to play out as perhaps the activists had been planning.
The Jerusalem Post video below shows some of the drawn out negotiation to get the demonstrators off the bus. An Israeli policeman tells the passengers in Hebrew he doesn’t want to use force to get them outside. One of the activists demands not to be spoken to. Another is interviewed lying down. Finally, police physically remove them from the bus while each shouts slogans for the cameras.
One supporter – while trying to interfere with an arrest – accuses a police officer of pushing her which he shouldn’t do because she’s a “lady” and he’s a “racist.”
Perhaps most telling of the true intentions of the protesters, that they’re issue is not so much equal rights but the end of the Jewish state: activist Huwaida Araf tells the Post, “It doesn’t end until Israel’s colonial apartheid regime is dismantled, because it cannot go on. It is the barrier to peace in the region.”
The activists say they were barred from entering Jerusalem because they didn’t have the proper permits. They were subsequently arrested for refusing to get off the bus and were released shortly after without charges. After years of absorbing suicide bombings and terrorist attacks, Israel restricts entry to Jerusalem and into its borders to those with permits or visas. Which raises the question: Why didn’t the activists arrange for such permits before setting out on their journey? (Perhaps less good of a photo op?)
Apartheid?
The comparison of Israel to apartheid South Africa got a big push when former President Jimmy Carter in 2006 published his book titled “Palestine Peace Not Apartheid.”
When one bandies as loaded a term as “apartheid” perhaps it would be useful to examine a few facts. There are approximately 1.5 million Arab citizens of Israel. Currently, 14 Members of Knesset are Israeli Arabs. One of them, Hanan Zoabi, doesn’t believe that Israel should be a Jewish State, left the hall when the national anthem was played at the Knesset, and was on board last year’s Gaza flotilla trying to break the Israeli naval blockade of Gaza. Regardless, she’s a citizen and has equal rights under the law.
Huda Naccache
The model representing Israel in next month’s Miss Earth competition is 22-year-old Huda Naccache, an Israeli Christian Arab citizen (granted not the most famous pageant but still conveys the concept of equality). And the Israeli diplomat subject to a Kent State professor yelling “Death to Israel?” None other than Ishmael Khaldi, a Bedouin Israeli Arab honorably representing his country.
Though the activists and their foreign supporters are quick to accuse Israel of racism, it seems they themselves have a penchant for ugly stereotypes. The @PalFreedomRides Twitter page posted this cartoon replete with anti-Semitic imagery. Note the stereotypical knotted beard, the scowl and yarmulke on the Israeli settler.
Though a hateful cartoon doesn’t deserve more attention, just to get the facts straight, Israeli buses do not have chairs labeled “settlers only” or even “Jews only” for that matter.
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Comments (86)
Dude Doug
Posted on November 16, 2011 at 8:53amThese guys need a confrontation, an issue that they can rally additional world support. Great that this effort failed miserably, too bad that they will just go back to the drawing board to find another way to garner world condemnation of Israel.
Report Post »Shiroi Raion
Posted on November 16, 2011 at 8:46amAgain, the bad guys take lessons from our Liberals. If they can’t find any real dirt, they simply make it up. Glenn beck boiled a frog alive! – Rubber frog. Glenn Beck accuses Progressives of conspiring with the enemy to destroy Capitalism. – Proven true. Tea Party are hateful and unruly. – 3 years and 0 arrests. Conservatives are anti-science. – Then why are most doctors Conservative? Republicans want dirty air and water. – That’s just stupid beyond belief! …and on and on…
Report Post »sWampy
Posted on November 16, 2011 at 10:39amParks sat on the front seat of the bus for months without a problem, pushing and pushing, until finally one day she tried an elderly white woman tried to sit next to her and she wouldn’t let her, this finally angered the southern gentleman. Media has been spinning stories for thousands of years, only way to find the truth is actually go to the actual court houses, and newspapers from the local towns where these “civil rights” battles took place to find out the truth. Only the winners get to report history, to bad freedom lost in the 60′s.
Report Post »Obomb_is_Toast
Posted on November 16, 2011 at 2:13pmYou took the words right out of my mouth
Report Post »Lloyd Drako
Posted on November 16, 2011 at 5:48pmSwampy:
Report Post »I’ve heard a different version of the Rosa Parks story, but equally one that makes her anything but the long-suffering martyr she’s often made out to be. First, of course, she was a longtime civil rights activist and a woman of some standing in Montgomery’s black community, not at all just a humble seamstress. Second, as you say, she had refused to give up her seat to white people several times already, and on each of those occasions she got away with it. On Dec.1, 1955, a driver who’d tangled with her before finally lost patience and called a cop, who arrested her. Without James Blake, you would never heard of Rosa Parks.
Jenny Lind
Posted on November 16, 2011 at 8:42amJimmy carter wears the mask of Christianity, but my belief is he is not. Stirring up and supporting hatred is as far anti-Christ as you can get. He has done more harm than he can imagine, and someday he get’s to look at the ruler of this world and try to explain his actions. He’s not so stupiid that he does not understand the Arab position of the destruction of the Jews, so I believe he is anti Jewish completly, and supports the destruction of Israel. That makekes him plain Evil (yes, with a capital).
Report Post »newrepublic7
Posted on November 16, 2011 at 10:00amRosa Parks and blacks in the south didn’t blow buses up and kill children. So they don’t have the moral high ground, like they pretend. You can’t ride the bus because your people and people from your area/town come to Tel-Aviv and try to kill people, NOT because they hate you and your race or color. Stop killing and shooting rockets at Kindergardens and you can ride the bus.
Report Post »dnewton
Posted on November 16, 2011 at 10:32amThere is a certain strain of Christians that believe that the Jews no longer have a covenant relation with God and that the modern church is now the replacement as the “apple of God’s eye. This concept is quite old and to some extent justifies antisemitism. To get there, one must interpret events rather than the plain text of scripture.
Report Post »Jay mack
Posted on November 16, 2011 at 8:40amNotice the position of the Israeli settler with the sole of his foot showing deliberately. In the arab world, to show the sole of your foot to someone is an insult, kind of like flipping someone the bird over here.
Report Post »UnmitigatedTruth
Posted on November 16, 2011 at 11:24amJay Mack, you’re an IDIOT!
Report Post »GdHUs
Posted on November 16, 2011 at 1:58pmWhy is he an idiot? What he said is true.
Report Post »Chill, baby.
redgypsy
Posted on November 16, 2011 at 4:44pmUnmitigated–sorry to burst your righteous little bubble, but Jay Mack is right. Showing the sole of the foot is extremely insulting in that part of the world. If you know anybody who’s been over there (or even to Iraq or Afghanistan) you’d know that.
Report Post »marion
Posted on November 16, 2011 at 7:14pmLatuff, the artist, is into all that subliminal anti-capitalism, Iraeli-Palestinian conflict stuff, so it was probably intended to be an insult trying to make it an insult. He can‘t be recognized if he doesn’t do controversial cartoons, now can he? Latuff is the idiot in this case, Jay Mack simply caught the not so subliminal hatred.
Report Post »JustPeachy
Posted on November 16, 2011 at 8:38amSo what else is new? Seems these same people are always trying to stir up trouble. They so WANT Israel/Israelis to react. It must annoy them no end that they don’t!
As for Israel needing our help? They truly don’t. They have said–and I believe them–that if need be, they are well prepared and equipped to take care of themselves. They have one of the best militaries in the world, despite their tiny size! And as others have pointed out, they are SMART. They know what they’re doing.
Go Israel! :-)
Report Post »Texas Chris
Posted on November 16, 2011 at 2:37pmWell said.
Report Post »Lloyd Drako
Posted on November 16, 2011 at 6:20pmSo much for the pseudo-courage of the people who turn up here daily to proclaim that they “stand by Israel.” The Israelis really don’t much care whether you do or do not stand by them. As you say, they are quite capable of defending themselves.
Report Post »Twobyfour
Posted on November 16, 2011 at 9:32pmNo, Drako, Israelis do care, regardless that they can take care of themselves.
Report Post »Tell me, do you care is you have friends? Unless you are an uber-sociopath that is…
Twobyfour
Posted on November 16, 2011 at 9:34pmMe typo-sinner… is = if.
Report Post »hi
Posted on November 16, 2011 at 8:28amHow about Arab gender apartheid?
Report Post »Joyzee
Posted on November 16, 2011 at 8:27amNext Election , israel will be safer’ hold on..
Report Post »amerbur
Posted on November 16, 2011 at 8:27amPalestinians, we are not stupid, (well I guess some of us are stupid). Your life is disrupted because too many of your people are willing to put on suicide vests.
Report Post »mwhaley
Posted on November 16, 2011 at 8:44amI do not know about the stupid part. 53% voted for Obama, or in this case 53% ride the short bus.
Report Post »HappyStretchedThin
Posted on November 16, 2011 at 8:26amThis is Carter’s most heinous miscarriage of history. Any comparison between Israel and Apartheid demonstrates either ignorance about the real evils of South Africa before the 1990s, or purposeful debasing of that experience. Citizenship, voting rights, rights to live and work where one pleased, all denied because of the color of one’s skin. But even in South Africa, the black organizations wanted to be INCLUDED, not to EXCLUDE the whites.
Report Post »5headspro.com
Posted on November 16, 2011 at 8:16amEQUALJUSTICE, you hit the nail on the head with that. God forbid that a people defend their borders. Quite frankley, they should have poped a one with a 9mm in the leg and said, “now, any other questions?” And we should do that at our borders as well. A country without borders is not a country.
Report Post »sbenard
Posted on November 16, 2011 at 7:51amWhat amazes me is that there are so many complicit people and media who are so easily and willingly deceived by these people!
Report Post »cemerius
Posted on November 16, 2011 at 8:07amIf, they gave the TEA party as much POSITIVE coverage as they do the OWS things may be actually changing to the positive! Unfortunately the coverage of the OWS gives the impression that THEY are the majority i.e. 99%’ers……They DO NOT nor have they ever represented me! Sorta like the feeling I get when I see Bill Nelson trying to represent my state and NASA…forked tongue speaker!
Report Post »Thomas Payne
Posted on November 16, 2011 at 8:34amThey are not deceived. You said it. They are complicit. Does anyone think it is a coincedence they are using the same type of tactics as the OWS crowd? This is a global organization and global movement happening. The next year is going to be a doozy.
Report Post »carbonyes
Posted on November 16, 2011 at 12:42pmNot so sure the media is deceived. By the devil – yes. By the elitists – no. The media is in league with and in lockstep with the liberal elitists. The liberal media is in the tank with Obama and will more likely than not be spending their eternity in the same place.
Report Post »ellietoo
Posted on November 16, 2011 at 7:50amthe same people in this country that support the OWS people support Palestinians who also make fools of themselves. They both want something for nothing. We send billions of dollars to the Palestinians and they still live like they are in the stone age. They have nothing because they are too stupid to know how to build a society. All they know is their religion and that has gotten them far hasn’t it? Bomb making is the big industry there. They want what Israel has worked for just like the OWS people want what the corporations have worked for. These are Obama’s people!
Report Post »Americaisalwaysrightevenwhenitswrong
Posted on November 16, 2011 at 1:35pmwe give billions to Israel, not Palestine. Israel in turn keeps all Palestinians fenced off in Gaza and the West Bank. The actual physical separation of the two groups, while some Arabs may be allowed into Israel to work, is what I think people are referencing when they compare the situation there to an apartheid. After traveling throughout Israel myself, and seeing not one single Arab the whole time (except for the Palestinian section of Jerusalem), it made me think…
Report Post »lukerw
Posted on November 16, 2011 at 7:47amOh, it’s segregated: between… the Good & the Bad!
Report Post »Miami
Posted on November 16, 2011 at 7:45amHow was it…?
If the winds of change come to be I will side with…
I will lay life for Israel and would be honored to spill my blood along with the Jewish people, I wonder if Zero would do the same…?
Report Post »Texas Chris
Posted on November 16, 2011 at 2:40pmI fully support your right to voluntarily risk your life for what you believe in!
Report Post »SpankDaMonkey
Posted on November 16, 2011 at 7:28am.
Report Post »Ya’ll just need to uncover your women and embrace Porn. It’ll keep your hands busy…….
PingPongPing
Posted on November 16, 2011 at 7:20amhow about Arab apartheid against non-muslims?
Report Post »V-Forge
Posted on November 16, 2011 at 7:51amExactly. these people are so “One cause” it’s sickening. Christians have been dragged into the streets and slaughtered and they are silent but let one Palestinian feel uncomfortable and they go ballistic. I will repeat as i always have. bring the fire, crush their will to fight. End this. They can join humanity or die.
Report Post »warveteran
Posted on November 16, 2011 at 7:15amI stand with Israel.
Report Post »GreatGu
Posted on November 16, 2011 at 7:15amThis surprises you how? I too was given a Koran while deployed, and have read through it. A peaceful religon, I think not.
Report Post »carbonyes
Posted on November 16, 2011 at 9:04amIslam is not a peaceful religion. Never has been; never will be. Inspired by demons and the dregs of Hell, it is bent on destruction of Jews and Christians and the Judeo-Christian way of life. Are there moderate Muslims? According of whose definition of moderate?
When the Twin Towers came crashing down, many so called moderate Muslims were seen rejoicing, clapping hands, jumping and shouting. Moderate? Not hardly!
Venture into pretty much any mosque in America. See what is being taught by Imams. At least 80%, if not more madras es within mosques or Islamic academies in the United States and Canada are teaching hatred towards Christians and Jews and imparting of Sharia Law, which some of our wacko judges in this country are permitting in the adjudication of cases before them. Many of the schools and studies are sponsored with funds from Saudi Arabia. Moderate? Once again, not hardly!
Check out:
http://www.loganswarming.com/islamsharia-101sharia-mosques-in-america/
http://www.danielpipes.org/2489/what-are-islamic-schools-teaching
Also note what Islamic imams are teaching in our US prison system and mostly to blacks – making radical Muslim converts out of already slightly deranged convicts, and the politically correct liberal loons in our government think this is wonderful. Lovely, isn’t it!
Believe it or not, this is just scratching the surface of the insanity which is being permitted to intrude into every facet of our government, culture and society. Dang
Report Post »Texas Chris
Posted on November 16, 2011 at 2:47pmWhile I do believe that Islam is NOT a religion of peace, I must contest your delivery. It reads more like a Salem witch trial than a statement of fact.
Any logical person that reads the Islamic texts (yes, there are several) must come to the conclusion that violence is encouraged agaisnt women AND non-believers. To arrive at another conclusion is to reject a portion of the religion.
As a Christian, I profess to accept 100% of the Bible. A “moderate muslim” cannot honestly do so with his scripture.
That being said, many American leaders who profess to be Christians, yet support war, onerous regulation, taxation, and restricted freedoms commit the same crime; they forsake vital themes of Christ (Do unto others…; Turn the other cheek…; Walk a mile…; Love your enemies…) in favor of totalitarianism and violence.
Report Post »grudgywoof
Posted on November 16, 2011 at 7:14amThese Palestinians are just like the OWS folks. They are too lazy or to stupid to realize if they spent half the efforts they do to prove a false premise they could earn a lot of the things they are coveting from those they despise. The Jews are smarter than you Hamas just face it. Hey most are smarter than me and that’s ok. I support Israel. TEA
Report Post »Texas Chris
Posted on November 16, 2011 at 2:49pmIt’s interesting that the Palestinians are compared to liberal OWS protesters, but most Jews in the US are liberal.
Report Post »00gabooga
Posted on November 16, 2011 at 6:50amEven if there was, Apartheid wasn’t instituted because the blacks in South Africa wanted to BLOW UP the whites.
Report Post »tweet
Posted on November 16, 2011 at 6:49amPropaganda is all that they have, oh and the Koran which tells them to create it (lie) and kill the Jewish people. Oh they only have rocks or stones to throw to defend themselves, meanwhile they shoot rockets…. Oy! More Propaganda. It is a disease with these people.
Report Post »NewLife56
Posted on November 16, 2011 at 6:48amHang in there Israel, help is coming soon…
Report Post »motocrossed
Posted on November 16, 2011 at 6:44amWhat does this story remind you of. Just keep repeating the lies mabey somebody will believe us!
Report Post »The truth has no agenda!
goofyfoot2001
Posted on November 16, 2011 at 6:28amI’ve read the Koran, could somebody please explain “Moderate Islam” to me? Maybe it‘s contained in the Hadiths which I haven’t read yet.
Report Post »DProffitt
Posted on November 16, 2011 at 6:49amWell…according to the Quran, there should be no such thing as “moderate Islam”, and I highly doubt you‘ll find it in any of the hadiths you haven’t gotten to. There are however moderate muslims, though according to the Quran they would be BAD muslims, and whenever one of them is bold enough to speak out against terrorism, they are threatened. I do applaud you for reading from the Quran though, never hurts to know thy enemy.
Report Post »kaydeebeau
Posted on November 16, 2011 at 9:14amAccording to Sam Solomen (spelling could be wrong) a muslim converted to Christianity and a Islamic lawyer – the difference between a moderate and a radical is (paraphrased) the moderate will take you out to dinner and walk you to the door before they rape and kill you. the radical will just rape and kill you
Report Post »Quixotic-911
Posted on November 16, 2011 at 9:20amIt just becomes much, much, worse when you read the hadiths. Reading about the life of the “prophet” Mohammed is hilarious, disturbing and just plane twilight zone bazaar. If he were alive today he would be among the worlds most wanted criminals. Guilty of more crimes than Hitler. He was such a lying, stealing,raping, back stabbing, babbling,plagiarizing, schizophrenic,shallow, materialistic, double talking, con man that I‘m can’t understand why a single person could possibly believe anything that he said. Islam is a comical tragedy.
Report Post »TeaPartyGoth97
Posted on November 16, 2011 at 10:59am@Kaydeebu
No. The difference is the Moderate will feel bad bout raping and killing you.
Report Post »The radical will enjoy raping and killing you.
BrandyWilson
Posted on November 16, 2011 at 6:26amWhat happened in the US South in the 50‘s and 60’s ….had the Spirit of Truth behind it….not propaganda!
Report Post »KevStutzCanDo
Posted on November 16, 2011 at 7:09amBRANDYWILSON…Very true statment, thank you.
Report Post »EqualJustice
Posted on November 16, 2011 at 8:11amFOOLS. This is not discrimination.. this is SELF DEFENSE! These people have declared DEATH TO ISRAEL. The 60′s movement was about equal rights for people who were ALL AMERICAN and loved their country. No comparison and this SHOW was to stir up more hatred for the Israelis.
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