50 Palestinian workers were forced to get off a bus following complaints of three Jewish passengers who refused to share the bus with Arabs, local media reported.
The incident happened on Thursday, August 4, when about 50 Palestinian workers here kicked off the bus in the city of Bnei Brak, after Jewish passengers demanded that the driver ask them to get off.
Speaking to Haaretz daily, bus company ‘Tnufa’ said that one of the Jewish passengers deceived the driver into believing he was an official in the Ministry of Transport and threatened him.
The bus operates on routes between Tel Aviv and the West Bank settlement of Ariel, transporting Palestinian workers with work permits from Israel to the occupied West Bank.
According to Israeli law, transport operators are not allowed to operate separate services.
More than 100,000 Palestinians in the West Bank have permits to cross into Israel and West Bank settlements, where they work as gardeners or construction workers.
As per the multiple media reports, Tnufa said that the driver was new to the job and had been intimidated by “racial manipulation”.
CEO of Tnufa, Mikhail Kopilovsky, in a statement said, “The company apologizes to the passengers for the unfortunate accident, many of our drivers and workers in the company are Arab.”
