Arabs not allowed? An Arab Israeli truck driver who was sent to deliver equipment to the Interior Ministry building in Jerusalem Sunday was turned away at the gates.
According to one of the driver's coworkers, the Interior Ministry employee turned him away with the explanation: “I can’t let an Arab driver enter. Send a Jewish driver tomorrow.”
A delivery official responsible for transporting equipment and goods to various government offices and who was familiar with the details of the incident told Ynet that this was not the first such occurence.
“It is not a general instruction, but there have been occasional incidents. Personally, I’m not surprised by the current incident at all. This is especially common at the Interior Ministry,” he noted.
An Interior Ministry employee confirmed to Ynet that this is indeed a recurring phenomenon. “When you have an (Arab) delivery driver, they don’t let him enter. I don’t understand the difference, if everyone who enters is escorted anyway,” the ministry worker told Ynet.
On the other hand, an Interior Ministry security officer, Yossi Shahaf, stressed that the ministry has no policy barring Arab drivers from entering the building. “There is no such policy,” he said, adding that he was not familiar with the current incident.
Spokesperson for the Interior Ministry Sabin Hadad said in response: “Every external element who arrives at the Interior Ministry must undergo some type of security check. Sometimes,
according to the circumstances, the security check takes longer than is acceptable. Owing to the demonstration outside the ministry today, we could not let the driver in to unload the goods, with no connection to his ethnic origins.”
Hadad appended an apology to her explanation of the circumstances: “With that, if there was an error on our part resulting in a misunderstanding, we view this gravely and express our apologies to the driver and company. Director General of the Interior Ministry Ram Belinkov asked that an immediate inquiry be made into the matter and into all those involved.”
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