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A group of Palestinians this week exercised their right to travel freely by boarding a bus to Jerusalem, in the spirit of the American Freedom Rides of the 1960s. Starting in the West Bank, the activist group of six which included American citizen Huwaida Arraf, waited to board a bus holding signs saying “We Shall Overcome,” and the words “Freedom,” and “Dignity.” . After some hours, they managed to board a bus and were transported to the outskirts of Jerusalem before they were forcibly removed and arrested by Israeli police. As they were dragged away, they shouted their names and declared themselves “Palestinian Freedom Riders.” Angela Davis earlier endorsed the action saying, “Palestinian Freedom Riders poised to collectively resist Israeli apartheid are inspired by the fifty-year-old legacy of U.S. Freedom Riders, whose bold defiance of Jim Crow laws in the South helped to dismantle legal structures of racism. All those who celebrate the achievements of the Civil Rights Era should be prepared to stand in solidarity with our Palestinian sisters and brothers today.” Meanwhile, yesterday, on the 7th anniversary of the death of Yasser Arafat, Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas called on Palestinians to engage in non-violent resistance against the Israeli occupation. He said, “I call for the widest participation in the popular resistance… Everyone, rank and file, should join this resistance … to prove that Israel is the aggressor.”

GUEST: Huwaida Arraf, a Palestinian Human Rights activist