A pro-Palestinian ‘fly-in’ to Tel Aviv got off to a slow start today after Israel scrambled to block activists from boarding flights in Europe.
‘Four activists have been detained after arriving on an El Al flight from Paris and are being questioned at (Tel
Aviv) airport,’ police spokesman Micky Rosenfeld said.An Interior Ministry spokeswoman said the Immigration
Authority had on Wednesday given airlines the names of some 1,200 activists whose entrance to Israel would be
barred. Israel made clear the airlines would have to shoulder the costs of sending any deported activists back
to their port of origin.
Leehee Rothschild, a ‘Welcome to Palestine’ activist,said that dozens of campaigners had since been informed by
airlines that their tickets to Tel Aviv have been cancelled.
Organisers said some 1,200 Palestinian supporters throughout Europe had bought plane tickets to Israel and
had planned 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 has denounced the activists as provocateurs and said it would deny entry to anyone who
threatened public order.
Hundreds of police officers were deployed in and around Tel Aviv’s Ben Gurion Airport, Israel’s main gateway to
the world.’We are expecting hundreds of activists throughout today. Some will be sent back to their countries. As part of normal procedure, they will be questioned and each case will be decided upon individually,’ Rosenfeld said.
