“Freedom Riders” released after short detention

Six Palestinian “Freedom Riders” who boarded an Israeli bus near a Jewish settlement in the West Bank on Tuesday with the purpose of exposing Israel’s apartheid and discrimination policy were released later that night after several hours of detention, according to one of the riders. Mazen Qumsiyeh, from Beit Sahour, near Bethlehem, said that he and five other rider activists, along with two other Palestinians arrested with the group when they were on the Israeli bus at a checkpoint outside Jerusalem, were released pending trial. He said they were held at a police station in Atarot, just outside Qalandia checkpoint between Ramallah and Jerusalem, where they were released to. “We are still charged with ‘illegal entry to Jerusalem’ and with ‘obstructing police business’ pending potential trial,” he said. The six riders refused to leave the bus when it arrived at Hizma checkpoint, one of many army posts set up around East Jerusalem to prevent Palestinians from entering the occupied city.