Israel blocks protesters from entering via airports

Associated Press

TEL AVIV, Israel

Aided by Facebook, Israel on Friday prevented scores of pro-Palestinian activists from boarding Tel Aviv-bound flights in Europe, questioned dozens more upon arrival at its main airport and denied entry to 69, disrupting their attempts to reach the West Bank on a solidarity mission with the Palestinians.

Israel had tracked the activists on social-media sites, compiled a blacklist of more than 300 names and asked airlines to keep those on the list off flights to Israel. On Friday, 310 of the activists who managed to land in Tel Aviv were detained for questioning, said Interior Ministry spokeswoman Sabine Hadad. Of those, four were put on return flights immediately and 65 were being held until flights home could be arranged for them, she said. The rest were permitted entry, she said.

At one point during the operation, two planes from Geneva and Rome were diverted to a secluded area of the airport upon landing and boarded by security.

Organizers of the “Welcome to Palestine” campaign accused Israel of overreacting to what they said is a peaceful mission to draw attention to life under Israeli occupation, including travel restrictions. Israel controls all access to the West Bank.

“This was never about demonstrations at airports. We are on a fact-finding mission. We want to understand what’s going on,” said Pippa Bartolotti, a 57-year-old British activist from Wales.

She said she was the only member of a 40-member group on a flight from Britain who managed to enter Israel. “Unfortunately, everybody else is in a holding bay and expected to be deported,” she said. “There are people from Belgium, France and the U.K.”

Israel has been jittery about the arrival of foreign activists since a deadly naval raid on an international flotilla that tried to break Israel’s blockade of the Gaza Strip last year. The incident, in which nine Turkish activists died in clashes with naval commandos, drew heavy international criticism and forced Israel to ease the blockade.

Israel took a series of measures to prevent clashes this time, most notably by barring protesters from the country altogether. Hundreds of police also were deployed at the already heavily fortified Ben-Gurion International Airport.