Ending the silence

Segregating buses is abhorrent, but why was the Palestinian Authority not leading the outraged response?

Palestinians are now being banned from buses used by Israeli settlers, so why isn't the Palestinian Authority leading the cries of outrage? Photo: Menahem Kahana / AFP

The odious order by Israel for separate bus services for Palestinians and settlers on the West Bank has led, quite rightly, to outrage and comparisons to Apartheid-era South Africa or racial segregation in the American south. The supposed justification – Palestinians who had passed rigorous security checks to work in Israel had been refused entry onto mixed buses or were removed by police because of settlers’ complaints – was equally disquieting.

While the international media and even some Israeli human rights groups condemned this abhorrent proposal for punishing innocent Palestinians instead of the settlers’ bigotry, what was curious was the Palestinian Authority’s failure to lead the publicity about it.

As the British parliamentary vote to recognise a Palestinian state showed, global public opinion is the Palestinians’ most effective weapon to end the occupation. Their cause needs not just a Palestinian Rosa Parks but also a homegrown Martin Luther King Jr.