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Hundreds of Palestinians travel each day to work in Israel from the occupied West Bank, mainly in the construction business, using travel permits each time they cross. The official, who declined to be named, said Palestinian workers would now need to change buses to avoid riding vehicles carrying Israelis after crossing back into the West Bank.
Israeli settlers in the West Bank have called for years for Palestinians to be banned from public transport there, arguing their presence poses a security risk.
Israel’s prime minster has overruled his defense ministers call on the ban and called off a proposed plan to segregate Palestinians from Israelis on West Bank buses.
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An official in the prime minister’s office said Benjamin Netanyahu called the Defense Minister, Moshe Yaalon on Wednesday to tell him that he found the proposal “unacceptable” and the two decided to freeze the plan immediately.
Earlier on Wednesday, Yaalon launched the three-month pilot program followed by the repeated complaints from Jewish settlers who ride the buses and say the Palestinian workers constitute a security threat and frequently engage in sexual harassment of female Jewish riders.
Thousands of Palestinians enter Israel for work each day from the West Bank and often ride alongside Jewish settlers.
Opposition leader Isaac Herzog attacked the decision, saying it marked a “stain on the face of the country.”
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