The number of Palestinians active in the event was so small, according to sources at the Ramallah press conference, because of the danger to violence of them from Israeli settlers and soldiers. The riders are five men and one woman.
The “Freedom Riders” event, organized by the Popular Struggle Coordination Committee, was designed as both a restaging of US Civil Rights activists’ boarding of segregated buses in the 1960s American South and a call to boycott the Israeli bus companies Egged and Veolia, which operate buses in occupied Palestinian territory.
“The Freedom Riders seek to highlight Israel’s attempts to illegally sever occupied East Jerusalem from the rest of the West Bank, and the apartheid system that Israel has imposed on Palestinians in the occupied territories,” according to a PSCC press release.
Egged and Veolia are both targets of the boycott because they operate bus lines in the West Bank, transporting people to and from illegal settlements. All Israeli settlements beyond the 1967 Green Line are considered a war crime under Article 49 of the 1947 Fourth Geneva Conventions.
While the built-up areas of settlements in the West Bank comprise a small percentage of the land, the roads and agricultural land designated specifically for settlers, as well as the wall, have taken up about 42%.
Former Palestinian President Yasser Arafat declared Palestine independent on November 15, 1988 from Algiers. The declaration as recognized by more than 80 countries at the time, most of them developing Asian, African, and Middle Eastern states. Since then, the number has increased to at least 130 of the 193 UN member states.
PNN - Palestine News Network
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