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| The Freedom Riders say they are being discriminated against by the Israeli bus companies |
Israeli
police have detained six Palestinians dubbed West Bank Freedom Riders who
boarded a Jerusalem-bound bus used by Jewish settlers.
The
activists say they drew inspiration from 1960s US civil rights demonstrators
who campaigned under the same name against segregated buses.
Palestinians
from the West Bank are not allowed to cross into Jerusalem without Israeli
permission.
Israel says
such restrictions are for security reasons.
The group
of six protesters gathered at a West Bank bus stop and waited for an Israeli
bus to pick them up, then tried to enter Jerusalem, in what appears to be a
first.
After being
allowed to travel to an Israeli checkpoint at the edge of Jerusalem, the
activists were eventually arrested when they refused to leave the bus.
The
protesters say that by only serving Jewish settlements and not Palestinian
areas in the West Bank, Israeli bus companies discriminate against them.
"These
buses and this whole system is discriminatory to Palestinians," said activist
Fadi Quran, as he waited at the bus stop.
The West
Bank Freedom Riders punched above their weight, drawing a lot of publicity for
what was a relatively small event, reports the BBC's Jon Donnison in the West
Bank.
The
comparison to the Freedom Riders of 1960s America seemed to capture the
imagination as dozens of journalists gathered to see the small group board the
bus, our correspondent says.
In actual
fact, this was less a protest about segregation and more about freedom of
movement, he adds.
There are
around 500,000 Jewish settlers in the West Bank and East Jerusalem.
Settlements
are illegal under international law although Israel disputes this.
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