{"id":18666,"date":"2012-04-23T12:00:17","date_gmt":"2012-04-23T11:00:17","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/?p=18666"},"modified":"2012-04-17T13:45:33","modified_gmt":"2012-04-17T12:45:33","slug":"european-airlines-silence-palestine-protest","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/2012\/04\/european-airlines-silence-palestine-protest\/","title":{"rendered":"European Airlines Silence Palestine Protest"},"content":{"rendered":"

As 60 percent of the international activists set to land at Ben Gurion airport Sunday [15 Apr 2012] had their plane tickets cancelled, organisers of the \u2018Welcome to Palestine\u2019 fly-in campaign condemned what they say is European complicity in Israel\u2019s illegal restrictions on their right to travel freely.<\/em>
\n<\/em>
\n“It\u2019s a sign of capitulation and obedience to illegal orders from the Israeli government since European regulations state that people have the right to travel,” Nicolas Shahshahani, an organiser with a French delegation of approximately 500 people expected to arrive in Tel Aviv Sunday, told IPS.<\/p>\n

German airline Lufthansa cancelled all flights from French airports into Tel Aviv scheduled for Sunday. Activists also reported that British airline Jet2.com, Air France and EasyJet had cancelled activists\u2019 tickets, after Israel circulated a no-fly list and threatened legal action should the airlines transport the activists to Tel Aviv.<\/p>\n

“The (Welcome to Palestine) delegates will (demonstrate) in large numbers (Sunday) with their friends in the French airports where they bought their tickets, in order to demand their fundamental right as citizens to travel freely and visit Palestinian friends that have invited them to Bethlehem,” Shahshahani said.<\/p>\n

Up to 2,000 international Palestine solidarity activists had booked flights to Tel Aviv in order to spend a week volunteering and visiting different areas of the occupied West Bank, including Bethlehem, Hebron, Ramallah and the Jordan Valley. They planned to openly announce their intention to visit Palestinian areas upon arrival at the airport.<\/p>\n

The activities \u2013 which include renovating a kindergarten, planting trees and repairing water wells \u2013 were organised at the behest of 25 local Palestinian civil society organisations.<\/p>\n

“Our goal is to be visited as Palestinians,” Mazen Qumsiyeh, media coordinator of the Welcome to Palestine initiative told IPS. “Under occupation this need to be visited is even more (important). Even prisoners in prisons are entitled to visitors, so we are insisting on our right to be visited and the right for people to visit us freely.”<\/p>\n

As of 10 am Sunday morning, the Israeli authorities had stopped a handful of international activists at Ben-Gurion airport, where the Israeli government had deployed 650 police and security officers.<\/p>\n

“The Israeli government said that (the activists) are coming to cause trouble. This is a lie. We are continuing with our programme regardless of what happens and regardless of the number of people who get in,” Qumsiyeh added.<\/p>\n

Last year, over 400 people were denied access to their flights to Tel Aviv from airports across Europe. Approximately 125 activists managed to make it to Ben Gurion airport, but most were interrogated, detained and deported after announcing their intention to visit Palestinian areas.<\/p>\n

Israel controls all entry points into the West Bank and has erected nearly 100 checkpoints throughout the territory, that severely limit Palestinian freedom of movement. Israel also maintains a strict blockade and permit-pass system on Palestinian residents of the Gaza Strip, and restricts nearly all outside access to the besieged territory.<\/p>\n

All foreigners wishing to visit, work or volunteer in the Palestinian territories must pass through Israeli security checks in order to access the area, forcing most to lie or conceal their true intentions for being there.<\/p>\n

“These policies serve to isolate the Palestinians from the rest of the world, and from international visitors. It affects the economy. It affects higher education. It affects, I think, all aspects of Palestinian life,” Sarah Anabtawi, coordinator of the Right to Enter campaign, which defends the rights of access, movement and residency in the occupied Palestinian territories, told IPS.<\/p>\n

On Saturday, the Israeli Prime Minister\u2019s Office released a sarcastic letter, supposedly meant to be distributed to the activists upon their arrival in Tel Aviv, which suggested other places the activists could focus their human rights work, such as Syria, Iran or the Gaza Strip.<\/p>\n

“You could have chosen to protest the Iranian regime\u2019s brutal crackdown on dissent,” the letter reads, “but instead you chose to protest against Israel, the Middle East\u2019s sole democracy, where women are equal, the press criticises the government, (and) human rights organisations can operate freely.”<\/p>\n

According to Mazen Qumsiyeh, Israel\u2019s reaction to the fly-in highlights the Israeli government\u2019s desire to limit peoples\u2019 awareness of the situation in Palestine, and shield itself from international criticism and pressure.<\/p>\n

“This is a hysterical reaction of a thief who doesn\u2019t want to be exposed as a thief. They don\u2019t want the world to know what\u2019s happening here. They want to isolate us even more and prevent internationals from coming to Palestine to find out what\u2019s going on,” Qumsiyeh said.<\/p>\n

“It\u2019s a confirmation that Israel isolates us and prevents us from having a normal life. (It\u2019s) an apartheid state that doesn\u2019t want the world to find out that it\u2019s an apartheid state.”<\/p>\n

Go to Original \u2013 ipsnews.net<\/a><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Join the BDS-BOYCOTT, DIVESTMENT, SANCTIONS<\/em> <\/strong><\/span>campaign to protest the Israeli barbaric siege of Gaza, illegal occupation of the Palestine nation\u2019s territory, the apartheid wall, its inhuman and degrading treatment of the Palestinian people, and the more than 7,000 Palestinian men, women, elderly and children arbitrarily locked up in Israeli prisons.<\/p>\n

DON’T BUY<\/strong> PRODUCTS WHOSE<\/strong> BARCODE<\/strong> STARTS WITH<\/strong> 729<\/strong>,<\/span> which indicates that it is produced in Israel.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 DO YOUR PART! MAKE A DIFFERENCE!<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

7 2 9: BOYCOTT FOR JUSTICE!<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

As 60 percent of the international activists set to land at Ben Gurion airport Sunday [15 Apr 2012] had their plane tickets cancelled, organisers of the \u2018Welcome to Palestine\u2019 fly-in campaign condemned what they say is European complicity in Israel\u2019s illegal restrictions on their right to travel freely.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[51],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-18666","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-europe"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18666","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=18666"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18666\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=18666"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=18666"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=18666"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}