Due to complaints from Israeli settlers who say Palestinians
are a security risk, one bus company that commutes Palestinians and Israelis
from the West Bank has now made separate buses for Palestinians and Israelis.
Palestinians are already barred from entering the Israeli
settlements in their own territory, now they will get buses of their own,
starting from the checkpoints Palestinians are required to go through.
Transportation Ministry officials are not officially calling
them segregated buses, but rather bus lines intended to relieve the distress of
the Palestinian workers.
But the Israeli newspaper Haaretz says Palestinians have
often been treated roughly on the public transport, and the situation could now
get worse.
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The Northern Christchurch business Kiwi Pellets Kaiapoi has
fired its five labourers, but not after they were forced to train the 11 prison
inmates that will be replacing them.
One worker said they were told they were being replaced "due
to lack of work and other factors" just days after the company had hired
11 inmates from Christchurch's Rolleston Prison under the Release to Work
scheme.
Hare Solomon said he will start mediation with the
Department of Labour over the redundancies. He said "I feel this could
happen to other employees at other places of work and would not like to see
this happen to anyone, it is not a good feeling to lose a job you like.
Ironically, Mr Solomon said the business productivity
started plummeting once the 5 workers had lost their jobs.
The Department of Corrections would not confirm whether
inmates were working at Kiwi Pallets due to prisoners' privacy, but The Press
followed a van full of workers from the company premises to Rolleston Prison.
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