Israel’s prime minister, Binyamin Netanyahu, has cancelled a pilot scheme banning Palestinian workers from Israeli buses in the occupied territories – denounced as tantamount to apartheid – only hours after it was announced.

The plan had been approved by Netanyahu’s defence minister, Moshe Ya’alon, but was cancelled amid fierce criticism from Israeli opposition figures, human rights groups and a former minister in Netanyahu’s own party, who said it was a “stain on the face of Israel” that would damage its international image.

The move had been enthusiastically welcomed by settler groups and pro-settlement MPs who had long been lobbying for the ban.

The three month pilot scheme – which had been due to come into force on Wednesday – would have imposed strict new controls on thousands of Palestinians with permits to work in Israel, insisting they travel home through certain designated checkpoints and banning them from using Israeli run buses in the occupied West Bank.

The timing of the scheme’s launch – during visits by Sepp Blatter, the president of Fifa, world football’s governing body, and the EU’s foreign policy chief, Federica Mogherini – had seemed bizarre. Blatter is seeking to defuse moves to have a vote on Israel’s suspension from Fifa for alleged discrimination against Palestinians.

The Israeli opposition leader, Isaac Herzog, had immediately condemned the scheme.

“The decision to separate Palestinians and Jews on public transportation is an unnecessary humiliation that is a stain on the state and its citizens,” Herzog wrote on his Facebook page.

“This is another one of the prime minister’s mistakes who is giving in to and supporting a horrible decision that has no connection to the security of the state,” the opposition leader added.



The leader of Israel’s leftwing Meretz party, Zahava Gal-On, said: “This is how apartheid looks. There is no better or nicer way to put it. Separate buses for Jews and Palestinians prove that democracy and occupation cannot co-exist.”

This is how apartheid looks. There is no better or nicer way to put it. Zahava Gal-On

The move had also been criticised by Gideon Sa’ar, a former interior minister from Netanyahu’s Likud party who had warned it would damage “Israel’s image around the world” adding, “It cannot remain in place.”

The new arrangement had first been mooted last year but was not implemented. Under the scheme – slated to initially last three months – Palestinians entering Israel via the Rayhan, Hala, Eliyahu and Eyal checkpoints would only be able return home via the same checkpoints through which they left the West Bank.

Palestinians with entry permits – mainly working in the construction industry – currently enter Israel through smart crossings that register them and are then allowed to return by public transportation with no need to register on their return.

The details of the new arrangement had been widely reported on Wednesday morning and confirmed by an Israeli defence official, who said: “Under a three-month pilot project, Palestinians who work in Israel will, starting Wednesday, need to return home by the same crossing without taking buses used by [Israeli] residents” of the occupied West Bank.

According to the Israeli website Walla, implementation of the plan was initially held up for several months following the concern of senior military officials whose objections were eventually overruled by Ya’alon, who reportedly argued that it was necessary to supervise Arabs returning to the West Bank.

The suspension of the scheme was welcomed by Israel’s president, Reuven Rivlin, who also said he had spoken to Ya’alon.

“As one who loves the Land of Israel, I have nothing but regret for the discordant voices that we heard this morning, supporting the separation between Jews and Arabs on the basis of ideas that have no place being heard or said,” Rivlin said.

There was fresh violence in Jerusalem on Wednesday when Israeli police shot dead a driver in a Palestinian neighbourhood of East Jerusalem after he allegedly rammed them with his car, injuring two female officers.



