(Hanan Ashrawi’s daughter telling her story)

I am Palestinian - born and raised - and my Palestinian roots go back centuries. No one can change that even if they tell me that Jerusalem , my birth place, is not Palestine , even if they tell me that Palestine doesn't exist, even if they take away all my papers and deny me entry to my own home, even if they humiliate me and take away my rights. I AM PALESTINIAN.

Name: Zeina Emile Sam'an Ashrawi; Date of Birth: July 30, 1981; Ethnicity: Arab. This is what was written on my Jerusalem ID card. An ID card to a Palestinian is much more than just a piece of paper; it is my only legal documented relationship to Palestine . Born in Jerusalem , I was given a Jerusalem ID card (the blue ID), an Israeli Travel Document and a Jordanian Passport stamped Palestinian (I have no legal rights in Jordan ). I do not have an Israeli Passport, a Palestinian Passport or an American Passport.

Here is my story:

I came to the United States as a 17 year old to finish high school in Pennsylvania and went on to college and graduate school and subsequently got married and we are currently living in Northern Virginia. I have gone home every year at least once to see my parents, my family and my friends and to renew my Travel Document as I was only able to extend its validity once a year from Washington DC . My father and I would stand in line at the Israeli Ministry of Interior in Jerusalem , along with many other Palestinians, from 4:30 in the morning to try our luck at making it through the revolving metal doors of the Ministry before noon – when the Ministry closed its doors - to try and renew the Travel Document. We did that year after year. As a people living under an occupation, being faced with constant humiliation by an occupier was the norm but we did what we had to do to insure our identity was not stolen from us.

In August of 2007 I went to the Israeli Embassy in Washington DC to try and extend my travel document and get the usual "Returning Resident" VISA that the Israelis issue to Palestinians holding an Israeli Travel Document. After watching a few Americans and others being told that their visas would be ready in a couple of weeks my turn came. I walked up to the bulletproof glass window shielding the lady working behind it and under a massive picture of the Dome of the Rock and the Walls of Jerusalem that hangs on the wall in the Israeli consulate, I handed her my papers through a little slot at the bottom of the window.

"Shalom" she said with a smile. "Hi" I responded, apprehensive and scared. As soon as she saw my Travel Document her demeanor immediately changed. The smile was no longer there and there was very little small talk between us, as usual. After sifting through the paperwork I gave her she said: "where is your American Passport?" I explained to her that I did not have one and that my only Travel Document is the one she has in her hands. She was quiet for a few seconds and then said: "you don't have an American Passport?" suspicious that I was hiding information from her. "No!" I said. She was quiet for a little longer and then said: "Well, I am not sure we'll be able to extend your Travel Document." I felt the blood rushing to my head as this is my only means to get home! I asked her what she meant by that and she went on to tell me that since I had been living in the US and because I had a Green Card they would not extend my Travel Document.

After taking a deep breath to try and control my temper I explained to her that a Green Card is not a Passport and I cannot use it to travel outside the US. My voice was shaky and I was getting more and more upset (and a mini shouting match ensued) so I asked her to explain to me what I needed to do. She told me to leave my paperwork and we would see what happens.

A couple of weeks later I received a phone call from the lady telling me that she was able to extended my Travel Document but I would no longer be getting the "Returning Resident" VISA. Instead, I was given a 3 month tourist VISA. Initially I was happy to hear that the Travel Document was extended but then I realized that she said "tourist VISA". Why am I getting a tourist VISA to go home? Not wanting to argue with her about the 3 month VISA at the time so as not to jeopardize the extension of my Travel Document, I simply put that bit of information on the back burner and went on to explain to her that I wasn't going home in the next 3 months. She instructed me to come back and apply for another VISA when I did intend on going. She didn't add much and just told me that it was ready for pick-up. So I went to the Embassy and got my Travel Document and the tourist VISA that was stamped in it.

My husband, my son and I were planning on going home to Palestine this summer. So a month before we were set to leave (July 8, 2008) I went to the Israeli Embassy in Washington DC, papers in hand, to ask 2 for a VISA to go home. I, again, stood in line and watched others get VISAs to go to my home. When my turn came I walked up to the window; "Shalom" she said with a smile on her face, "Hi" I replied. I slipped the paperwork in the little slot under the bulletproof glass and waited for the usual reaction. I told her that I needed a returning resident VISA to go home. She took the paperwork and I gave her a check for the amount she requested and left the Embassy without incident.

A few days ago I got a phone call from Dina at the Israeli Embassy telling me that she needed the expiration date of my Jordanian Passport and my Green Card. I had given them all the paperwork they needed time and time again and I thought it was a good way on their part to waste time so that I didn't get my VISA in time. Regardless, I called over and over again only to get their voice mail. I left a message with the information they needed but kept called every 10 minutes hoping to speak to someone to make sure that they received the information in an effort to expedite the tedious process. I finally got a hold of someone. I told her that I wanted to make sure they received the information I left on their voice mail and that I wanted to make sure that my paperwork was in order. She said, after consulting with someone in the background (I assume it was Dina), that I needed to fax copies of both my Jordanian Passport and my Green Card and that giving them the information over the phone wasn't acceptable. So I immediately made copies and faxed them to Dina. A few hours later my cell phone rang. "Zeina?" she said. "Yes" I replied, knowing exactly who it was and immediately asked her if she received the fax I sent. She said: "ehhh, I was not looking at your file when you called earlier but your Visa was denied and your ID and Travel Document are no longer valid." "Excuse me?" I said in disbelief. "Sorry, I cannot give you a visa and your ID and Travel Document are no longer valid. This decision came from Israel not from me."

I cannot describe the feeling I got in the pit of my stomach. "Why?" I asked and Dina went on to tell me that it was because I had a Green Card. I tried to reason with Dina and to explain to her that they could not do that as this is my only means of travel home and that I wanted to see my parents, but to no avail. Dina held her ground and told me that I wouldn't be given the VISA and then said: "Let the Americans give you a Travel Document".

I have always been a strong person and not one to show weakness but at that moment I lost all control and started crying while Dina was on the other end of the line holding my only legal documents linking me to my home. I began to plead with her to try and get the VISA and not revoke my documents; "put yourself in my shoes, what would you do? You want to go see your family and someone is telling you that you can't! What would you do? Forget that you're Israeli and that I'm Palestinian and think about this for a minute!" "Sorry" she said," I know but I can't do anything, the decision came from Israel ". I tried to explain to her over and over again that I could not travel without my Travel Document and that they could not do that - knowing that they could, and they had!

This has been happening to many Palestinians who have a Jerusalem ID card. The Israeli government has been practicing and perfecting the art of ethnic cleansing since 1948 right under the nose of the world and no one has the power or the guts to do anything about it. Where else in the world does one have to beg to go to one's own home? Where else in the world does one have to give up their identity for the sole reason of living somewhere else for a period of time? Imagine if an American living in Spain for a few years wanted to go home only to be told by the American government that their American Passport was revoked and that they wouldn't be able to come back!

If I were a Jew living anywhere around the world and had no ties to the area and had never set foot there, I would have the right to go any time I wanted and get an Israeli Passport. In fact, the Israelis encourage that. I however, am not Jewish but I was born and raised there, my parents, family and friends still live there and I cannot go back! I am neither a criminal nor a threat to one of the most powerful countries in the world, yet I am alienated and expelled from my own home.

As it stands right now, I will be unable to go home - I am one of many.

So today is the third day of Eid Al Fitr that all Muslims worldwide celebrate right after the culmination of the month of Ramadan. Not sure if it’s only me, but Ramadan seems to have lost its glory. Years ago when I was a child, people’s attitudes towards both Ramadan and Eid (festival) were way different than now. Maybe I have grown up to the extent that I see in them nothing but the mere fact that few arrogant relatives come for a visit for a couple of minutes, and everyone just sucks them up.

It has been a gloomy day in deed. Being self-centered often times, I thought that my own family never enjoyed the Ramadan that other people celebrate. But the night prior to the Eid, I went for a drive to Ramallah with my uncle and three sisters, we toured around Al Manara and the mall a bit, and felt the legendary atmosphere. People were happy. That hit me; I am not accustomed to seeing them vividly preoccupied with the preparation for the big “day.”

So I came back home and wrote to all my contacts wishing them a Happy Eid and expressed my astonishment and satisfaction to see promising smiles in the crowded streets of Ramallah. But the sad part was that I knew it was merely fleeting moments and that those smiles would be wiped off soon. Not only have my fears become true, but I was blind. Yes, blind. Or may be I just chose not to see it. May be I wanted to believe that we are actually happy.

Would I miss Ramadan? NO. Not really. It has been made hell this year.

While Ramadan is believed to be the holy month during which people get closer to Allah by fasting from food and drink all day long and focus on their faith instead, I am not pretty sure this was the case with us Palestinians. It was only a drug. Ramadan numbed our pain. We could handle both the Israeli and Palestinian political, economic, and security pressure knowing that the day of salvation was approaching; the Eid. But after the three days elapsed, then what?

Now thousands of Palestinians are waiting for the next phase. It has been seven months now. Seven months, and thousands of the PA employees have not received their salaries. And two months elapsed with millions of students deprived form their right of education. I have three sisters and two brothers who do nothing but stay at home. They have not attended school from the very beginning of this term. It is both sad and frustrating that they have to “do the time” and pay a high price.

Reading the news headlines on the first days of Eid is not healthy at all. It lessens the effect of the drug, and one starts to get sober. Sounds funny in deed, but that was the case.

Few minutes ago, I surfed some of the blogs and came across few Iraqi bloggers writing on both Ramadan and Eid. If the titles did not mention “in Iraq,” I swear I could never tell the difference between Iraq and Palestine. The hunger, misery, constant killing, and lack of security are all Palestinian symptoms.

I am speechless now; I can hardly verbalize the so many conflicting thoughts. Heaven knows how things would be like next Ramadan, but I would not speculate it already. It is not time to worry about it now, other issues are on stake; food, money, and education. Until then, there are a lot of things to sort out.

Yesterday, I realized that I believe in love at first sight. Not the romantic kind, rather the sense of connecting with another human being without ever having to say a word. Indeed, the person I was so enthralled with last night was a five-month-old girl, who smiled at me and then hid her face in shyness. Those few moments of interacting with this baby lifted my spirits, but it also made me reflect in sadness about the fact that many children in this current conflict are robbed of their joy and their childhood.

I often contemplate how mature Palestinian children seem. Sure, they play the childhood games that we all played in our day, but there is wisdom in their words that is eerily sobering. Their age defines them as children, but if you have a conversation with a Palestinian child, you will realize how much awareness she has of the world around her, of suffering in the next village, in Gaza, in Lebanon. She is a child that has empathy and understands that life, by nature, is wrought with all sorts of difficulties.

A Palestinian child knows better; life is not as it is depicted in cartoons, where those who die are miraculously resurrected not once, but several times, where injuries are healed instantaneously, where death is a joke and life is a series of slapstick moments. A Palestinian child escapes into imagination, but she is never far removed from the reality of children and adults alike being indiscriminately shot outside her window, in her classroom, at the local bakery.

Who would have thought that normal things, simply walking down the street to grab a falafel sandwich, could result in your untimely death? Perhaps the Israeli army mistook the falafel stand for a bomb-making factory, or an ammunition shop? Make no mistake about it; the Israeli military have made too many “mistakes” that there is obviously a pattern there, wouldn’t you think?

A child that is robbed of the sense of security, therefore, is a child that is mature beyond her years. She knows that the bullets and the tank shells do not discriminate. Her father can shield her from the neighbor’s vicious dog, from the crazy drivers, he will hold her hand to cross the street, but he will not be able to capture a bullet in his hand like the mythological superheroes in blockbuster movies out this summer in theatres near you. He might be able to take the bullet for her though. But once gone, who will be her protective shield against the harsh reality of life that goes on in what seems the periphery of the conflict? And who will be there to share some of her joyous milestones; graduation, marriage, the birth of a child? Hers is a joy that is always overshadowed by a greater sorrow.

Is it fair that 31 Palestinian children have died in a 31-day period? A child-a-day; is that the new Israeli army mantra? Khaled was just a one-year-old, Aya was seven, Sabreen was only three. What lost potential, what lost promise – who knows what Khaled would have grown up to be? An astronaut? A veterinarian? A philosopher? What about Aya; she could have become a fashion designer, a teacher, a mother. By what right has this promise been so violently plucked and trampled upon cruelly and without a moment’s hesitation on the part of the Israeli soldier, who heartlessly unleashed a fiery rain of bullets and shells on a neighborhood as if he is in a simulated video game and those who die are fictitious and unreal? Perhaps that is what he is made to believe, otherwise, who in clear consciousness is so willing to pull the trigger and with one spray of bullets destroy life, potential and rob joy?

If you can see the smiling face of your own child, then how do you go out and unquestioningly take the life of others? If you value life, then how do you live with the burden of knowing that you have taken it so unjustifiably? Perhaps that is your perpetual punishment; the judgment of a child scorned is the harshest of them all.

Secretary of State John Kerry has put Palestinian economic growth high on the agenda with his recent shuttle diplomacy to restart peace talks, but a group of Israeli and Palestinian business leaders are a couple steps ahead of him.

The last few years, amid a dearth of political progress, they have been working toward the establishment of an arbitration court, the first of its kind, to resolve cross-border-trade business disputes between Israelis and Palestinians that otherwise have no realistic address for adjudication.

Economic collaboration between Israelis and Palestinians has been hobbled by the lack of a neutral forum for settling disagreements between Israeli and Palestinian businessmen when they arise. Palestinians and Israelis face restricted access to each other’s territory and have little trust in courts lying across the border. Without any legal recourse for problems like a bounced check, transactions become riskier and less attractive, cooling commercial ties.

So they created the "Jerusalem Arbitration Center," which is sponsored by chamber of commerce associations on both sides and slated to begin its work by the end of 2013. The goal is to give merchants and investors peace of mind, eliminating disincentives to expanding the trade relationship that totals $4 billion a year – Palestinians’ largest such relationship, by far. The court will consist of two Israelis, two Palestinians, and five international legal or arbitration experts. The Israeli and Palestinian governments have agreed to enforce the court's rulings.

"The trade community became a cash-based community, because there was no recourse if a check bounced," says Sam Bahour, a Palestinian businessman. "If [the arbitration court] gets traction, it could be something interesting."

Skirting politics

As part of the revived push for a peace agreement, Israel, the US, and the Palestinians are devoting substantial time and attention to efforts to boost the Palestinian economy, believing economic growth would improve the environment for negotiations.

Many of the steps, such as ceding Israeli control over some parts of the West Bank so the land can be devoted to Palestinian economic projects and relaxation of restrictions on Palestinian movement, are likely to face opposition from hardliners in Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s cabinet. The US is also expected to transfer more aid for infrastructure projects

The arbitration center is something different. Three years in the making, it is a homegrown, independent effort by business communities on both sides to smooth commerce – in spite of chilled relations between their governments, a vacuum of negotiations, and Israeli barriers on movement and access that handicaps Palestinian businessmen.

"It has nothing to do with the political process. It has to do with surviving the conflict and not ending the conflict," says Samir Hulileh, the chief executive of Padico, a Palestinian conglomerate with businesses from real estate to telecommunications to manufacturing. "It gives confidence to investors. Investors should see there’s an exit, and that they’re not part of a problem held up in the political process."

The effort has been spearheaded by Palestinian billionaire Munib Masri, the owner of Padico, and Oren Shachor, a former major general who oversaw the Israeli government’s civil administration of the Palestinian territories.

At the outset of a transaction, businessmen will sign contracts agreeing to use the Jerusalem Arbitration Center in the event of a dispute. Should a case be brought to the court, it will be handled by a panel of three arbitrators – one Israeli, one Palestinian and one international. The decisions will then be referred to local courts, whether in Israel or the Palestinian territories, which will oversee implementation and enforcement by police authorities.

It’s unclear, however, how the court would handle a trade dispute linked to geopolitical issues like the movement and access restrictions on Palestinians dictated by Israeli security authorities.

Creating trust

Last month, days after the announcement of a plan to normalize estranged ties between Turkey and Israel, the local chambers of commerce said the arbitration center will be chaired by Rifat Hisarcıklıoğlu, a Turkish business leader close to Turkish President Abdullah Gul.

Turkey was chosen because it remained an important trade partner for Israel, despite the deterioration of relations between the two governments in the last couple years. For the Palestinians, Turkish involvement represents the presence of a Muslim regional power that has actively supported the Palestinian cause.

"Turkey is a country that is close by, and we have a huge cycle of business with," says Mr. Shachor, who believes trade between Israel and the Palestinians will double in five years as a result of the arbitration. "The center is a bridge between Palestinians and Israelis."

Israeli and Palestinian companies trade in everything from agriculture, to building materials, to telecommunications services. Companies in all industries might end up availing themselves of the arbitration center.

It will potentially simplify the lives of those like Brian Thomas, a British Israeli who imports computer equipment and then sells to Palestinian vendors in the West Bank. He says all of his transactions are in cash, which forces him to carry tens of thousands of dollars in cash at a time.

If a joint court worked as advertised, he says he might consider allowing Palestinian clients buy on credit, although he says he remains skeptical because enforcement of transaction claims is lax, even among Israelis.

"Everybody knows there is no legal recourse if they run away with your money. If I looked into it, and it was real, and I had confidence, it might mean that I would do more business with these guys," he says. "But Israeli courts chasing Israelis is hard enough, to go after an Arab in Nablus sounds stupid."

Improved trade with Israel would be an economic boon for Palestinians: the current $500 million in annual exports to Israel represents 80 percent of all Palestinian exports. Even a 25 percent increase would be significant, says Saad Khatib, the former director general of the Palestinian Federation of Industries.

Mr. Khatib says that in order to create the conditions for long-term growth of the Palestinian private sector, Israeli and Palestinian politicians need to sit down and negotiate a new customs regime that will give Palestinians control over tariffs on goods from abroad while preserving free trade between Israelis and Palestinians.

He suggests that politicians take their cues from the business community.

"The private sector wants to work together and wants to improve the situation," he says. "Generally, the private sector is miles ahead of any government. Hopefully it will play catch up."

President Barack Obama received glowing praise from Israelis for a Jerusalem speech last week in which he reaffirmed his support for the two-state solution. But with the new Israeli cabinet's first working meeting today, a government that could lower the prospects of an eventual Palestinian state is taking the helm.

As a result of the strong electoral showing by the nationalist Jewish Home party, which earned it a place in the governing coalition, key ministries and other government positions will be held by settlers and their allies, who are determined to make the Israeli presence in the West Bank and East Jerusalem irreversible.

"This is the opposite of a dream team, in every important intersection of authority," says Danny Siedemann, a Jerusalem lawyer and peace activist who monitors Israeli building in East Jerusalem and the West Bank. "All of these people are predisposed to an unprecedented settlement surge, in the West Bank and East Jerusalem. All of them are hostile to the two-state solution."

Although newly-appointed Israeli Trade Minister Naftali Bennett, the charismatic leader of Jewish Home, exchanged pleasantries with US Ambassador to Israel Daniel Shapiro at a dinner to honor Mr. Obama, he speaks openly about doubling the number of settlers in the West Bank and East Jerusalem to 1 million and annexing much of the West Bank. As trade minister, he can award permits to Israeli businesses seeking to set up premises in West Bank industrial zones and exert influence on decisions made by other ministries.

With Jewish Home members also leading Israel’s housing ministry, which oversees construction in the West Bank as well as Israel, and the Israeli parliament’s finance committee, Mr. Bennett and allies are well-positioned to push that agenda. Shortly after Obama’s speech, Mr. Bennett posted a response (Hebrew) on his Facebook page.

"A Palestinian state isn’t the correct path," he wrote. "It's about time for new and creative solutions to the conflict in the Middle East. Moreover, there’s no such thing as an occupier in his own land."

The coming lovers' quarrel

To be sure, in the immediate afterglow of Obama's first state visit to Israel – almost universally recognized as a success if the measure is his ability to reassure Israel of his support – this line of criticism seems to be in the minority.

After Obama emerged from Israel’s Yad Vashem Holocaust Memorial, Israel’s former chief Ashkenazi rabbi, Meir Lau, a Holocaust survivor who served as an escort on the stop, told Israel Radio that Obama had been moved by the museum. "If anyone did think he was an enemy," he said, "they now know he is a lover."

The visit was a success, in part, because Israel’s government was on its best behavior. The army largely ignored rocket attacks from Gaza and an encampment of Palestinians in a controversial tract of land just to the east of Jerusalem. And unlike three years ago, when a new building project in East Jerusalem was announced during Vice President Joe Biden's visit to the country, similar discussions of new Israeli building projects – like a military academy in East Jerusalem – were dropped from the agenda of planning boards.

But Uri Ariel, the new housing minister from Jewish Home, is likely to bring those projects – and many more – back on the agenda. The far-right parliamentarian who resides in the settlement of Kfar Adumim knows about building in the West Bank from years of experience: he once headed the Amana Movement, a 34-year-old settler organization that oversaw home building and the organization of new communities in the West Bank and Gaza Strip. He was also director general of the settlers' umbrella leadership, the Yesha Council, in the late 1980s and early 1990s, when settlement activity surged.

In an interview with the pro-settler weekly "Eretz Yisrael Shelanu" (Our Land Israel), he invoked the Messianic theology of the religious settler movement, saying his appointment marks "another stage on the path to redemption."

He also cited his career of advancing building "in all parts of our holy land." "With God’s help, I will continue on this path," he told the newspaper.

Bracing for bad news

Obama said during his central address in Israel that settlement construction threatens a two state solution: "Israelis must recognize that continued settlement activity is counterproductive to the cause of peace, and that an independent Palestine must be viable with real borders that have to be drawn.’’

But now that the glare of the presidential spotlight has abated and Mr. Ariel is heading the ministry that prepares government building tenders in the West Bank, settlement watchdogs are bracing for new announcements about controversial projects like East Jerusalem's Kidmat Tziyon, a 300-unit planned housing development located near a Palestinian Jerusalem neighborhood next to the Mount of Olives.

Sidemann said that in the next couple of weeks, the "logjam" of building projects in the West Bank and Jerusalem is liable to burst.

The international community will also be focused on the fate of E-1, a land tract Israel’s government has slated for housing, but is seen by critics as driving a wedge between the northern and southern West Bank. New building projects in far-flung settlements beyond Israel's separation wall will also be watched closely.

Mr. Ariel is a "man who gets things done," says Gil Hoffman, the political reporter for The Jerusalem Post. That said, Mr. Hoffman insists that Ariel is a pragmatist and will seek to maintain the pace of building under previous governments rather than a provocative building surge.

Normalization

Many Israelis expect that Jewish Home will use its leadership of the Knesset finance committee, which prepares the annual budget, to channel additional funds to the settlements.

Defense Minister Moshe Yaalon has perhaps the most power after Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. The hardline member of Likud who is considered sympathetic to the settlers' goals has far-reaching powers to authorize building in the West Bank and has publicly said that an accord with the Palestinians is unrealistic in the near future.

The US is hoping that Obama's positive first trip will reinvigorate peace efforts, though most settlers are not worried. They see the composition of the new Israeli cabinet as a reassurance that Israeli policy will move away from peace negotiations. Yisrael Meidad, a resident of the settlement of Shilo, says the new government could normalize Israeli perceptions of the setters; many non-settler Israelis are generally not enthusiastic about the settlements and believe that many should be returned to the Palestinians for peace. If attitudes changed, Israel could be headed toward a starkly different vision than that laid out by Obama.

"[The new government] might bring us in from the cold," Mr. Meidad says. "We’ve graduated from being cautiously optimistic to looking forward to its ability to consolidate what I think is the latent willingness of Israel’s population to be comfortable with right-wing or nationalist Zionism."

The Afikim Bus No. 210 pulled up to a stop outside the main shopping mall in this Tel Aviv suburb on its maiden run from Israel to the West Bank on Monday, but for unsuspecting Israelis who tried to board the driver had a swift interdict.

"You cannot come on this bus."

That’s because the 210 line is one of two new buses that are effectively Palestinian-only. Israel’s transportation ministry added the buses with an eye to shuttling those with work permits to and from West Bank road blocks and Israeli cities. The government says the new subsidized lines are the first of many meant to ease transportation for tens of thousands of day laborers and make it more affordable.

Palestinians and human rights advocates see it as an attempt to institute a segregated bus system to separate Israeli settlers from Palestinian neighbors who routinely find themselves side by side on commutes at the end of a day of work inside of Israel.

As more Palestinians have been allowed back to jobs inside Israel following the uprising in the first part of the last decade, there has been growing tension on buses. Settlers allege they are getting left behind at bus stops because their seats are taken by Palestinians, while Palestinians complain that Israeli police have removed them from buses at the settlers’ behest and made to return on foot.

"It's true that we can’t ride the 81 bus anymore just because we are Arab," says Mohammed Hassnein, a painter riding the 210 bus back to Nablus, referring to a line that serves the bedroom community settlement of Kedumim. "In my opinion, [the new bus] is racist because it’s not meant to facilitate our lives."

Israeli human rights advocates say the new bus system counts as another element of the Jewish state’s military occupation of the West Bank that evokes elements of the apartheid system that separated races in South Africa or racial segregation in the southern United States during the first half of the last century.

In response to the criticism, the Israeli Transportation Minister Israel Katz issued a statement on Monday saying that he had instructed officials to ensure that Palestinians with permits to enter Israel are allowed access to all public bus lines.

The new bus lines are meant to reduce laborers' dependence on gypsy van operators, and the fare of 5 shekels ($1.34) to Kfar Saba and double to Tel Aviv – is a significant discount, a shift acknowledged by the workers.

The IDF estimated at the end of 2012 that 73,000 Palestinians get their income from inside Israel.

"Now they have a bus for us…. This is excellent because we need to save money," says Faisail Hussein, a tile worker who rode the 210 Monday morning as he waited for a ride home.

While the transportation ministry statement promises the new bus service should be "unrestricted and equal" for all populations, the new bus lines are formatted to serve Palestinians only and effectively bar Israelis.

Catering to the commute for Palestinian laborers, the first 210 bus starts out at 4:30 am from the Eyal Crossing – a crossing point between the West Bank and Israel that serves only Palestinians – and passes about 10 stations in Kfar Saba before terminating in Ra’anana another suburb. But once inside Israel, the buses do not accept new passengers.

Busses in the opposite direction begin at 3:15 in the afternoon and pass through Kfar Saba’s industrial zone, but don’t let passengers off until reaching the crossing points for Palestinians going back to the West Bank – effectively keeping Israelis off.

A second bus, the 211, runs from the Eyal Crossing to central Tel Aviv. More lines are planned, said the bus operator's chief executive Ben Hur.

In the last decade Israel has set up a separate road system in the West Bank for Palestinians and established separate crossing points into Israel. Infrastructure like water is also separated, says Michael Sfard, a human rights lawyer.

"The notion that they would be better off with their own buses echoes the idea that was rejected 60 years ago by the American Supreme Court of separate but equal," says Mr. Sfard. "This regime of separation is shaped according to ethnic and national lines, and it is done in the context of the domination of one group over another, and with the intention of maintaining that domination."

Both activists from Machsom Watch, an organization of Israeli women who report on treatment of Palestinians at West Bank checkpoints, and Palestinians complain that Jewish settlers who share the buses with them in the evening have called Israeli security authorities to remove Palestinians on buses crossing through Israeli-only check points, who are then forced to walk two miles to a separate crossing point.

The problem is overcrowded buses, explains one Israeli woman waiting for the bus back to the settlement of Alfei Menashe from Kfar Saba from her clerical job in Kfar Saba. "They are humans too, but we need to get home. Someone needs to make order," says the woman, who declined to give her name.

A spokesman for the settlers council in the northern West Bank said the two populations don’t have need for the same buses and that settlers have been unfairly accused.

"In the past local Arabs who did not have work permits to enter Israel had tried using Israeli public buses to pass through check points and that was discovered," wrote David Ha’ivri, of the Shomron Regional Council’s liaison office in an email. "These issues are not 'settler's' concern per se, they are issues dealt with by the IDF."

Back on the 210 bus to Eyal, Middle Eastern music was playing to a half-full bus of middle aged men who fit a profile that is classified as a low security risk.

"It’s ironic," notes Mussa Mohammed, a tile layer from Nablus. "Inside Israel we are free to ride the buses and train, but on the way back to our homes in the West Bank we are separated out."

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is still without a coalition more than a month after winning parliamentary elections, but amid the political horsetrading the next government's agenda is coming into view.

While the Israeli leader initially called for a super-sized coalition to grapple with foreign foes like Iran and regional instability, it increasingly appears that a divisive domestic issue – entitlements for the ultra-Orthodox – will be a top priority. That will push the peace process further onto the back burner as President Obama prepares to make his first visit to the country as president, which many hope will spur a renewed push for Israeli-Palestinian peace.

Mr. Netanyahu’s coalition-building effort has been rattled by an unexpected alliance between two ascendant political parties which, despite their contradictory views on the Palestinians, have doggedly pursued a joint demand to end draft exemptions for the ultra-Orthodox, or Haredim.

With the deadline for coalition negotiations two weeks away, it looks like he won’t be able to form a majority government without them.

The axis between Yesh Atid, a centrist party that supports a Palestinian state, and the pro-settler Jewish Home party, which believes in annexing most of the West Bank, brushes aside a longstanding divide between hawks and doves. It also shows starkly that the Israeli public is more focused on socioeconomic issues than Arab-Israeli peace.

"This is a strange and wondrous moment in Israeli history…. For the first time we have a coalition of parties driven by a domestic agenda," says Yossi Klein Halevi, a senior fellow at the Shalom Hartman Institute in Jerusalem.

"The political system has always deferred dealing with long-festering domestic problems because of external threats and emergencies. Those threats certainly exist today, but what has changed is that the Israeli public is demanding of its leadership that it learn how to walk and chew gum at the same time: 'Deal with our external threats, but don’t defer dealing with our internal problems.' "

The shift reflects both exhaustion and pessimism about Israel’s ability to solve the decades-old conflict with the Palestinians, even amid rising fears that a new intifada, or uprising, might erupt and that the two-state solution could be rendered unworkable. That change coincided with a rising concern about bread-and-butter issues, which first came to dominate the public agenda in summer 2011, when hundreds of thousands of Israelis staged street demonstrations over cost-of-living issues.

'Sharing the burden'

During the election campaign, Yesh Atid championed the middle class and the value of "sharing the burden," a code for ending government entitlements to the ultra-Orthodox that allows the burgeoning Israeli group to stay out of the army and the workforce in favor of religious study. Jewish Home, a party of Israeli religious nationalists, promised to block surging housing prices, and also supports integration of the ultra-Orthodox into the mainstream.

In coalition negotiations, both parties focused on reforming the draft, an issue that bridges much of the right and left, secular and religious.

Political commentators yesterday speculated that Netanyahu would partner with Yesh Atid and Jewish Home, while leaving the ultra-Orthodox out of the coalition.

"Some people believe that real peace isn’t expected, and because of that we can deal with domestic issues like the draft, and entitlements for the ultra-Orthodox," says Avraham Diskin, a professor of political science at Hebrew University in Jerusalem.

When Yesh Atid and its charismatic leader Yair Lapid surprised pollsters with a second-place finish last month, it stoked hope that he would help moderate government policy toward the Palestinians and restart peace negotiations after being stalled for five years.

But cooperation with the Jewish Home seems to indicate that is not Mr. Lapid's priority. In a gesture to his ally, Lapid recently asked parliament members from his party not to participate in a tour sponsored by a pro-peace activist group. It was a reminder that the peace process was barely discussed during the election, and that parties that championed it fared poorly.

"The Israeli public didn’t vote on the two-state solution. It wasn’t a topic in the election," says Tal Shalev, a political reporter for the Walla news website. "The two big issues are the economy and the Haredim."