Israel Matzav: Police detain nine at Ben Gurion; five allowed in

Sunday, April 15, 2012

Police detain nine at Ben Gurion; five allowed in

Israel Radio reports that nine pro-'Palestinian' 'activists' were detained for questioning at Ben Gurion Airport. Five were allowed to enter, four were detained; one is still being questioned. There are protests at the airports in Paris and Brussels, but the airlines are not letting the 'activists' board flights for Israel. Here's a report from YNet that is not quite as current as Israel Radio's 11:00 report.

Four people who arrived aboard an El Al flight from Paris Sunday morning, as well as another who arrived a Jordanian plane were questioned at a booth set up by the Interior Ministry at BG Airport. Three of them were allowed to enter the country, while the other two passengers - from the US and Portugal - were deported.

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Knesset Member Michael Ben-Ari (National Union) and right-wing activists Itamar Ben-Gvir and Baruch Marzel also arrived at BG Airport with an Israeli flag ahead of the expected arrival of more pro-Palestinian activists.

I caught the end of an interview with one of those three (I didn't catch which one) on Sunday morning. They said that the government shouldn't just be deporting these people - they should be arresting and charging them with membership in a terror organization and let them rot in jail for a while Unfortunately, that's unlikely to happen.

JPost adds:

Police detained four pro-Palestinian activists who flew to Israel as part of the "flytilla" protest early on Sunday morning. The activists arrived in Israel from Paris.

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The Foreign Ministry has over the past few weeks been in discussions with its counterparts in capitals around the world, explaining Israel’s position regarding the fly-in and making clear that those coming to engage in provocative actions would not be given an entry visa.

Israeli authorities circulated to the airlines the names of some 1,200 pro-Palestinian activists expected to participate, in the hope that the companies would prevent them from boarding.

One official explained that if someone flies into a country without the necessary visa or is not given that visa when he or she lands, the responsibility – and expense – for flying the person back falls on the airline.

Already on Wednesday, Amnon Shmueli, who heads the Immigration Authority at Ben- Gurion Airport, sent a letter to all airlines with a list of names of the people it believed were planning on participating in flytilla, according to a document posted on its website.

The document said, “Due to statements of pro-Palestinian radicals to arrive on commercial flights from abroad to disrupt order and confront security forces at friction points, it was decided to deny their entry.”

“Attached is a list of passengers that are denied entry to Israel. In light of the above mentioned, you are ordered not board them on your flights,” the letter states.

“Failure to comply with this directive will result in sanctions against the airlines.”

According to the website, already as early as Tuesday a foreign visitor from Sweden who entered Israel from Eilat was asked to sign a pledge not to be a member of a pro-Palestinian organization, not to be in contact with any pro-Palestinian organizations and not to participate in pro-Palestinian activities.

Aharonovitch confirmed Saturday night that Israel had asked airlines not to board fly-in passengers.

“They acted pretty much accordingly,” he said.

Those identified by Israel as provocateurs who manage to circumvent the no-fly lists and land in Israel will be “isolated from the central airport,” Aharonovitch said.

Activists who get past all of Israel’s measures “will be arrested if they cause disturbances,” he added.