Israel Matzav

Israel determined to stop flytilla

This Sunday is one of the busiest travel days of the year at Tel Aviv's Ben Gurion Airport. It's the day after Passover (Passover for Israelis actually ends on Friday, but the country's national airline doesn't fly on the Sabbath, and the airport runs a very limited Saturday schedule, so de facto, Sunday will be one of the busiest travel days of the year).

Pro-'Palestinian' 'activists' have chosen Sunday for Flytilla 2, an event that crash landed last year after hundreds of Europeans were denied boarding by airports around Europe. According to Israel Television, the 'activists' believe that this year they will be allowed to board because last year the airlines had to pay them compensation (it's not clear to me whether that was any more than a refund of the ticket prices). But this article from YNet makes it sound like they're afraid that Israel is going to foil them again.

Israel vowed Tuesday to prevent the entry of hundreds of pro-Palestinian activists from Europe and North America expected to arrive in the country this weekend, calling them provocateurs who are intent on disturbing public order.

The activists are set to board flights to Israel with the aim of participating in demonstrations against Israeli policy in the West Bank. Although organizers say all protests will be peaceful, Israeli officials said the activists would be deported.

“The provocateurs will be dealt with in a determined and quick way,” said Israel’s public security minister, Yitzhak Aharonovitch.

“If they arrive in Israel they will be identified, removed from the plane, their entry into Israel will be prevented and they will be moved to a detention facility until they are flown out of Israel.”

Read the whole thing. The 'activists' claim they have a 'right' to enter 'Palestine,' but 'Palestine' doesn't exist and they're asking to land in Israel's national airport and will have to pass through Israeli passport control if they make it here. Every country has the right to decide who is permitted to enter and who is not. That's why France warned its citizens (many of whom were among those denied boarding last year) last week not to participate in the flytilla.

Last year, the airlines abandoned 'activists' who were arrested by Israel. They came in July, at the height of the tourist season, and the airlines refused to bump paying passengers to let the 'activists' out of jail to return home. About 50 'activists' managed to slip through passport control, which was far fewer than the number who spent time in Israeli jails, and far, far fewer than the numbers denied boarding in Europe.

Sounds like Sunday could be fun. Heh.

Labels: Ben Gurion Airport, flytilla, France

posted by Carl in Jerusalem @ 5:30 AM