Netanyahu halts controversial Israel bus 'segregation' plan

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu yesterday ordered the suspension of a controversial ban on Palestinians riding the same buses as Jewish settlers when returning from Israel to the West Bank.

The announcement came hours after the three-month pilot project approved by Defence Minister Moshe Yaalon began.

The ban was immediately attacked by rights groups and the opposition, who denounced it as an "unprecedented" move that heaped unnecessary humiliation on the Palestinians and would ultimately damage Israel.

Adding to tensions, a Palestinian driver rammed his car into two border policemen in annexed east Jerusalem, moderately injuring them, before he was shot dead by another officer, the Israeli authorities said.

A defence ministry official told AFP earlier that the bus ban would require Palestinians who work in Israel to return home by the same crossing without taking buses used by Israeli residents of the occupied West Bank.

Tens of thousands of Palestinians travel each day to work in Israel, mainly in the construction business, using travel permits each time they cross.

Such a ban, which has been demanded by settler groups for years on security grounds, would have significantly extended the Palestinians' commute time.

But the move was quickly stopped by Netanyahu, an official in his bureau told AFP.

Under the measure, Palestinian commuters' outward journey would remain unchanged but for their return trip they would have to board special Palestinian-only buses, which would drop them off at the same checkpoint where they crossed.

They would cross the checkpoint on foot, then make their own way home.

Before, they were able to catch any buses returning to the West Bank, serving both Palestinian commuters and settlers.

Official figures provided by COGAT, the defence ministry unit which manages civilian affairs in the West Bank, show there are 52,000 Palestinians from the West Bank with a permit to work in Israel.

The Peace Now watchdog said the application of such a measure was "unprecedented" since Israel seized the West Bank from Jordan in the 1967 Six Day War.

"This decision and the continuation of settlement activity proves that the settlers are leading us toward the right into an apartheid regime and to moral bankruptcy," spokeswoman Hagit Ofran said.