Israel stops 200 pro-Palestinian activists from boarding flights

SOME 200 pro-Palestinian activists have been barred from leaving foreign airports for Israel, where authorities are poised to deport others who manage to fly in, Israeli police said.

After Greece grounded a flotilla that tried to sail in contravention of the Gaza Strip blockade this month, international protesters mobilised to flock to Ben-Gurion Airport, near Tel Aviv, in a challenge to Israel’s curbs on accessing the occupied West Bank.

Israeli PM Benjamin Netanyahu denounced them as provocateurs.

His government ordered a crackdown, citing concern for public order at Israel’s main gateway to the world, or that the foreigners would reinforce Palestinian demonstrations.

Travellers affected by the ban expressed outrage.

“I am absolutely shocked that it is even possible that I am being blacklisted without any evidence that I have done anything at all,” said one thwarted traveller, Cynthia Beat.

“Apparently, it is sufficient to state that you would like to go to Palestine, to spend time with Palestinians, in order to be banned from Israel,” she said, speaking in Berlin.

Palestinian supporters say Ben-Gurion is the easiest access point for the West Bank, which is 10km away and has no airport of its own. They condemn the expulsions from Israel as an abuse of power.

According to Israel’s biggest newspaper Yedioth Ahronoth, the government issued European airlines with a list of 342 suspected activists who would be turned back at Ben-Gurion, with the carriers expected to return them.

“What we can confirm is there have been approximately 200 people that have not gotten on the airplanes overseas,” police spokesman Micky Rosenfeld said.

“That’s due to the fact ... that the international companies that are flying out realised that those individuals would have to fly back and won’t be allowed inside Israel and therefore, financially, it was not worth them taking the risk,” Rosenfeld said.

Two American women who flew in overnight were detained on grounds of “security problems” and deported, Rosenfeld said.

“These types of people try to come in throughout the year and, if necessary, they are turned back, and that is a standard procedure,” he said.

In French and German airports, scores of pro-Palestinian activists said they had been kept off their flights to Israel.