Israeli U-turn on Gaza flotilla media ban threat

ISRAEL said yesterday it was rethinking its threat to bar foreign journalists from entering the country for 10 years if they board a new aid flotilla that plans to challenge the Israeli naval blockade of the Gaza Strip.

“Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu heard about it on the news and asked to re-examine this issue because it’s problematic,” Deputy Prime Minister Moshe Yaalon said, referring to Sunday’s warning from Israel’s Government Press Office (GPO).

“I know the prime minister was as surprised as I was to hear this,” he said, without disclosing who had made the decision to deliver the threat. “There’s no way to stop the media in this day and age if they (are on board) anyway. It’s better not to clash with them.”

The Foreign Press Association in Jerusalem described the warning, which GPO director Oren Helman sent to international media organisations, as a “chilling message” that questioned Israel’s commitment to press freedom.

Pro-Palestinian activists have said around a dozen ships carrying aid to the Gaza Strip, territory controlled by Hamas Islamists, could depart from European ports in the coming days.

Israel has made clear it will enforce the blockade aimed at stopping weaponry reaching Hamas, which is shunned by the West because of its refusal to recognise Israel, renounce violence and accept existing peace deals.

Palestinians say the blockade is illegal and is helping to strangle Gaza’s underdeveloped economy. Israeli officials have said the convoy could dock in Egypt or Israel and have its cargo of aid transferred overland to the Gaza Strip.

In an email, Helman said participation in the flotilla would be “an intentional violation” of Israeli law and could result in a 10-year entry ban to Israel and the impoundment of journalists’ equipment.

A year ago, nine Turkish activists, including one with dual US-Turkish nationality, were killed by Israeli soldiers who raided a Gaza-bound aid convoy and were confronted by passengers wielding clubs and knives.

Netanyahu’s security cabinet discussed the new flotilla on Monday. A statement from the Prime Minister’s Office reaffirmed that “Israel is determined to prevent the flotilla from reaching Gaza with as little friction as possible with its passengers.”

Meanwhile, Palestinian president Mahmud Abbas said on Sunday that, with no renewal of peace talks on the horizon, the Palestinians would pursue their unilateral bid for recognition in September.

“I say that if negotiations have failed we will go to the United Nations for membership,” Abbas told a meeting of the Palestine Liberation Organisation and his Fatah party. “Until now there have been no new incentives to return to negotiations.”

The meeting, in the West Bank city of Ramallah, was called to prepare for the UN campaign.