BEN-GURION AIRPORT, Israel – Israel ordered the deportation of at least 65 incoming air passengers suspected of being pro-Palestinian activists and prevented hundreds of others from boarding flights for Tel Aviv yesterday.
Police spokesman Micky Rosenfeld said more than 300 people were questioned after flying in to Tel Aviv and allowed to stay. Others arriving on later flights would also undergo questioning.
He said some flights were told to park near the airport’s less crowded domestic terminal where passengers disembarked and underwent an initial check.
After Greece grounded a flotilla that hoped to sail to the Gaza Strip this month in a protest against Israel’s blockade of the enclave, protesters mobilised to flock to Ben-Gurion airport near Tel Aviv, in a challenge to Israeli curbs on entry to the occupied West Bank.
Hundreds of pro-Palestinian activists were also prevented from flying to Israel from airports abroad, after Israel told airlines certain people on passenger lists would not be allowed in.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu denounced the activists as provocateurs. His government ordered a crackdown, citing concern for public order at Israel’s main gateway to the world, and fear that foreign sympathisers would reinforce Palestinian rallies.
Scores of activists, told they would not be allowed to board flights to Israel from France, Germany and Switzerland, denounced what they called an abuse of power. “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 Cynthia Beat in Berlin.
Palestinians have no airport of their own, making travel through Ben-Gurion, just 10km (six miles) from the West Bank, the most direct route for visitors.
According to Israel’s biggest-selling newspaper Yedioth Ahronoth, the government gave European airlines a list of 342 suspected activists who would be turned back at Ben-Gurion, with the carriers bearing the cost.
“What we can confirm is that there have been approximately 200 people that have not gotten on the airplanes overseas,” Mr Rosenfeld said.
Earlier police arrested six Israelis who demonstrated against the clampdown at Ben-Gurion. One screamed “Free Palestine” in Arabic as she was dragged out of the terminal. Two American women who flew in overnight were deported, Mr Rosenfeld said.
Palestinian organiser Mazen Qumsieh said some potential visitors would give themselves away by naming “Palestine” as their destination rather than telling Israeli immigration officers they were pilgrims, as many do. “We did not request that they do that,” Mr Qumsieh said. He was satisfied with publicity over the crackdown.
Mick Napier, a member of the Scottish Palestine Solidarity Campaign, said he intended to risk being detained at Ben-Gurion.
“I think your prime minister, Netanyahu, is kind of really over the top in suggesting that peaceful visitors flying in to the airport and then taking the bus to Bethlehem was in some way a threat to the security of the state,” he told Israel’s Army Radio by telephone.
“You can win the battle and lose the war here.” – (Reuters)