Deputy Attorney-General Dina Zilber on Monday requested clarifications from the Defense Ministry's top legal advisor, attorney Ahaz Ben-Ari, over media reports that Defense Minister Moshe Ya'alon has decided, beginning next month, to bar Palestinians from traveling on buses used by settlers in Judea and Samaria. Ya'alon's decision is "solely based on security concerns, and will not prevent Palestinians from going to work and earning their living," an Israeli defense official said Sunday. "It is a strictly security-related decision, whose purpose is to oversee the entry and exit of people to and from Israel, and thus to reduce the possibility of terrorist attacks inside Israel. Palestinians with permits to work inside Israel will enter and exit at the same crossing," the official said. "It is something that every sovereign nation does to protect itself," said the official. Zilber asked Ben-Ari to present a comprehensive picture of the facts on the ground, the considerations that guided the defense minister's decision, the accompanying legal advice he received, the views of the various defense officials involved and the alternatives that were also examined. After Ben-Ari provides those answers, Attorney-General Yehuda Weinstein will formulate a legal position on the matter.
