Since its inception in 1985, systematic human rights violations have been perpetrated on land confiscated from Palestinian settlers in Beitar Illit. Author: Israel Times
TEL AVIV, March 15th. — The mayor of the illegal Jewish settlement of Beitar Illit said he had ordered the removal of Arab passengers from the buses, Israeli media reported Tuesday, despite Israeli police and the Defense Ministry asking him to refuse.
Ultra-Orthodox Meir Rubinstein confirmed that he would maintain order. The buses were stopped at the entrance to the settlement and dozens of Palestinians with blue Israeli identity cards were escorted out, according to the Palestine Chronicle.
The municipality later sent out a statement explaining that the mayor intended to ban buses only for Palestinian residents of the West Bank, not for Israelis with a blue ID, the Jerusalem Post reported.
“I resorted to [la ministra de Transporte] Miri Regev to stop this phenomenon of Palestinians getting on buses and bypassing checkpoints,” he told Radio Kol Hai on Sunday, adding that he had ordered local security forces to conduct checks on buses arriving in the settlement, the Jerusalem Post reported. “. “Rocks are thrown at us at night,” the mayor said.
Rubenstein gave the interview after the arrest of a suspect who planted an explosive device on a bus in the village along with four people who may have helped him in a night raid in the West Bank town of Battir last Saturday, the Israeli newspaper added.
Mayor Rubinstein, who has been in office since 2007, was arrested in 2021 on suspicion of involvement in a 1990 Jerusalem assassination. He was released for lack of evidence, according to the Palestine Chronicle. In this regard, The Jerusalem Post noted that he was suspected of being involved in the disappearance of Nissim Shitrit in 1986 and the murder of Abraham Edri in 1990, and that it was not clear in January 2023 whether he would be prosecuted.
The Jerusalem Post reported last year that members of Rabbi Eliezer Berland’s Shuvu Banim sect from the Breslov Hasidic community were involved in these 30-year-old crimes. Berland has already been in jail for fraud, tax evasion, money laundering and other crimes.
Source: Juventud Rebelde