(MENAFN- The Peninsula) Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Wednesday overturned a ban on Palestinians riding the same buses as Jewish settlers, a measure condemned by rights campaigners as "ethnic separation".
The about-face came as EU foreign policy chief Federica Mogherini began her first visit to the region since a new rightwing Israeli government was sworn in last week.
The three-month pilot project barring Palestinian workers from returning home from Israel to the West Bank on Israeli buses began on Wednesday morning after approval from hardline Defence Minister Moshe Yaalon.
It was immediately attacked by rights groups and the opposition, who denounced it as an "unprecedented" move that heaped unnecessary humiliation on the Palestinians and would ultimately damage Israel.
Israeli President Reuven Rivlin said he regretted that the plan "could have led to an unthinkable separation between bus lines for Jews and Arabs".
"I have nothing but regret for the discordant voices that we heard this morning, supporting the separation between Jews and Arabs on the basis of ideas that have no place being heard or said," he said in a statement.
Palestinian president Mahmud Abbas told Mogherini when they met in Ramallah that the new Israeli government posed a threat to resolution of the Palestinian-Israeli dispute.
"All of our efforts now are to save the two-state solution from an Israeli government that chose settlements," Palestinian official Saeb Erakat quoted him as saying.
Mogherini was to meet Netanyahu and Rivlin later.
Earlier Wednesday, a Palestinian driver rammed his car into two border policewomen in annexed east Jerusalem, moderately injuring them, before he was shot dead by another officer, police said.
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