by Our Foreign Desk

ISRAELI Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu bowed to pressure yesterday and cancelled a proposed plan for segregated buses.

In an abrupt U-turn in the first week of his government, Mr Netanyahu called Defence Minister Moshe Yaalon to tell him his proposal was “unacceptable.”

In a move reminiscent of the now-abolished Jim Crow racial segregation laws in the southern US, Mr Yaalon had launched the three-month scheme following repeated complaints from Jewish West Bank settlers.

The settlers, who use the buses along with Palestinian workers for Israeli firms, alleged Palestinian passengers were a security threat and harassed Jewish women on the buses.

Palestinians from the Occupied Territories who work in Israel already have to carry apartheid-style security passes, but the proposed change would have forced them to return home through the same checkpoint they entered and prevented them from riding West Bank buses alongside Israelis from illegal settlements.

Critics condemned the plan as racist and warned that it would harm Israel’s image, which has already been under pressure because of its continued settlement activity in the West Bank.

“The separation between Palestinians and Jews on public transportation is an unnecessary humiliation and a stain on the face of the country and its citizens,” opposition leader Isaac Herzog wrote on his Facebook page. “It adds unnecessary oil to the bonfire of hate against Israel in the world.”

Meretz party leader Zehava Galon went further, saying: “This is how apartheid looks.”

The proposal even came under fire from supporters of the settlements, who said it did not promote their cause and did undue damage to Israel’s image.

Israeli President Reuven Rivlin welcomed the reversal of the plan, saying that such separation between Israelis and Arabs would be “unthinkable.

“Such statements go against the very foundations of the state of Israel, and impact upon our very ability to establish here a Jewish and democratic state,” he said. “It is important we remember that our sovereignty obligates us to prove our ability to live side by side.”

Mr Netanyahu’s coalition government includes hardline pro-settlement parties in addition to his own right-wing Likud party. So far it has only held one cabinet meeting.