Six Palestinian activists were arrested in the occupied West Bank on Tuesday after staging an action inspired by the civil rights movement of the United States. The activists
boarded Jewish-only public buses near a Jewish-only settlement to protest segregation under Israeli occupation. They dubbed their effort the “Freedom Rides,” a nod to the 1961 Freedom Riders who rode interstate buses to challenge the Jim Crow laws of the Deep South.

Huria Ziadah: “They will go and try to board the settler buses to send a message for the world: first thing, that the occupation regime is a racial regime on our (Palestinian) land. The second thing is to call for the real work to boycott Israel, because all the world recognizes that this occupation is illegal on our lands, but they help him (the occupation) when they support the buses that transport only settlers on our lands.”

Israeli forces later arrested the activists after stopping the bus near a military checkpoint. A journalist covering the action was also detained.