Israel moves to thwart pro-Palestinian ‘fly-in’

More than 40 pro-Palestinian activists reached Tel Aviv’s international airport yesterday as part of an attempted “fly-in”, only to be detained as Israel denied them entry and scrambled to stop other campaigners boarding flights in Europe. Israel’s decision to distribute “no-fly” lists to European carriers and deploy hundreds of police at Ben Gurion airport underlined its deep concern over international campaigns against its treatment of the Palestinians. Police spokesman Micky Rosenfeld said that 45 people had been refused entry at Ben Gurion airport by the evening and would be deported. Nine Israeli supporters, some holding “Welcome to Palestine” signs, were also detained as they waited to greet the arrivals. An interior ministry spokeswoman said Israel on Wednesday had given airlines the names of some 1,200 activists whose entry would be barred. Israel made it clear the carriers would have to bear the costs of repatriating any deportees. Leehee Rothschild, a “Welcome to Palestine” activist, said dozens of campaigners had since been informed by airlines that their tickets to Tel Aviv had been cancelled. Organisers had said some 1,200 Palestinian supporters throughout Europe had bought plane tickets to Israel, planning to travel on to the occupied West Bank, an hour’s drive from Tel Aviv, as part of a campaign called “Welcome to Palestine”. The aim of the so-called “flytilla”, organisers said, was to help open an international school and a museum in Bethlehem. But Israel, which described the fly-in as a misguided protest against “the Middle East’s sole democracy”, denounced the activists as provocateurs and said it would deny entry to anyone who threatened public order. “What are they doing here? ... If they want to check the issue of human rights, they should go to Syria, maybe they can help stop the slaughter of thousands of innocents. They should go to Iran and stop the stoning of women,” Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu told reporters yesterday. In a separate incident in the West Bank, video footage broadcast yesterday of pro-Palestinian protesters confronting Israeli soldiers a day earlier showed an Israeli lieutenant colonel smacking an activist in the face with his rifle. The Israeli military called it “a serious incident” and a spokeswoman said it was investigating what happened and would take the appropriate steps. In Brussels’ Zaventem airport, around 100 Belgian and French activists were not allowed to board flights to Israel. Thirteen people were blocked from a flight in Manchester. The activists, some of whom said they wanted to build a new school, held up letters that were handed to them at the airport which said they were on a no-fly list because they intended to “disrupt order and confront security forces at friction points”. Cell phone video uploaded by an activist to the Internet showed about 20 pro-Palestinian activists at Charles de Gaulle airport in Paris surrounded by police. Some Israeli political commentators said Israeli authorities had overreacted, playing into the hands of pro-Palestinian campaigners seeking publicity. A similar, though smaller event last year led to a few hundred activists being blocked at European airports and more than 100 others were deported after Israel denied them entry.