SUBSCRIBE TO OUR FREE NEWSLETTER
Daily news & progressive opinion—funded by the people, not the corporations—delivered straight to your inbox.
5
#000000
#FFFFFF
5
#000000
#FFFFFF
Scene from last year's Flytilla arrests (Getty)
'Flytilla' Day Approaches: Israeli Reaction 'Paranoid, Hysterical'
Airlines begin to comply with Israel, 2000 activists still on the way
Apr 13, 2012
Thousands of peace activists will be attempting a "fly-in" or "flytilla" to Israel's Ben Gurion airport near Tel Aviv this weekend before heading to Bethlehem in the West Bank in a call to end the occupation and bring attention to Israel's blockade and control over the occupied territories.
Israel has reacted by creating a blacklist of names of activists to block them from flying out of their home countries, and plans on singling out any activists when they arrive at Ben Gurion to deport them upon arrival.
Now, "Dozens of passengers who bought a plane ticket to travel to Tel Aviv Sunday on April 15 were notified Thursday by the airline Lufthansa that their reservation was canceled, 'by order of Israel,'" writes the organizers of the action Welcome to Palestine Initiative 2012.
"Israel has produced a list of names of persons to whom this country denies entry. Yours is on it, which brings us to cancel your ticket and we immediately after will refund to your credit card," employees of Lufthansa reportedly said to the passengers.
Jet2.com has also complied with Israel's request to deny activists passage to Israel.
However, up to 2,000 Palestinian sympathizers, mainly from Europe, will still attempt to board planes en route to Israel this weekend.
Israeli authorities have warned they will not permit entry to "hostile elements" and "provocateurs". Hundreds of police will be deployed to Ben Gurion airport from Saturday night.
Israel's response was "paranoid and hysterical", said Mazin Qumsiyeh, one of the organizers of the Welcome to Palestine programme. "They simply don't want the world to know what's going on in Palestine," he said, The Guardian reported.
* * *
The Guardian/UK: Israel expected to block 'flytilla' of international Palestinian sympathizers
"The provocateurs will be dealt with in a determined and quick way," Israel's public security minister, Yitzhak Aharonovitch, said this week. "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." [...]
Airline representatives were reportedly warned that they would be expected to bear the costs of flying activists back to their point of departure. Flights carrying activists will be diverted to a smaller terminal, where security forces and immigration officials will check and question passengers.
Israel's response was "paranoid and hysterical", said Mazin Qumsiyeh, one of the organisers of the Welcome to Palestine programme and a university professor in Bethlehem. "They simply don't want the world to know what's going on in Palestine," he said. [...]
The mayor of Bethlehem, Victor Batarseh, told a press conference this week: "These people are coming to talk about peace, they are not coming to wage war against Israel. They are coming to visit the Palestinian people who are under occupation and to talk to them and to help them because these people are isolated."
An Urgent Message From Our Co-Founder
Dear Common Dreams reader, The U.S. is on a fast track to authoritarianism like nothing I've ever seen. Meanwhile, corporate news outlets are utterly capitulating to Trump, twisting their coverage to avoid drawing his ire while lining up to stuff cash in his pockets. That's why I believe that Common Dreams is doing the best and most consequential reporting that we've ever done. Our small but mighty team is a progressive reporting powerhouse, covering the news every day that the corporate media never will. Our mission has always been simple: To inform. To inspire. And to ignite change for the common good. Now here's the key piece that I want all our readers to understand: None of this would be possible without your financial support. That's not just some fundraising cliche. It's the absolute and literal truth. We don't accept corporate advertising and never will. We don't have a paywall because we don't think people should be blocked from critical news based on their ability to pay. Everything we do is funded by the donations of readers like you. Will you donate now to help power the nonprofit, independent reporting of Common Dreams? Thank you for being a vital member of our community. Together, we can keep independent journalism alive when it’s needed most. - Craig Brown, Co-founder |
Our work is licensed under Creative Commons (CC BY-NC-ND 3.0). Feel free to republish and share widely.
Thousands of peace activists will be attempting a "fly-in" or "flytilla" to Israel's Ben Gurion airport near Tel Aviv this weekend before heading to Bethlehem in the West Bank in a call to end the occupation and bring attention to Israel's blockade and control over the occupied territories.
Israel has reacted by creating a blacklist of names of activists to block them from flying out of their home countries, and plans on singling out any activists when they arrive at Ben Gurion to deport them upon arrival.
Now, "Dozens of passengers who bought a plane ticket to travel to Tel Aviv Sunday on April 15 were notified Thursday by the airline Lufthansa that their reservation was canceled, 'by order of Israel,'" writes the organizers of the action Welcome to Palestine Initiative 2012.
"Israel has produced a list of names of persons to whom this country denies entry. Yours is on it, which brings us to cancel your ticket and we immediately after will refund to your credit card," employees of Lufthansa reportedly said to the passengers.
Jet2.com has also complied with Israel's request to deny activists passage to Israel.
However, up to 2,000 Palestinian sympathizers, mainly from Europe, will still attempt to board planes en route to Israel this weekend.
Israeli authorities have warned they will not permit entry to "hostile elements" and "provocateurs". Hundreds of police will be deployed to Ben Gurion airport from Saturday night.
Israel's response was "paranoid and hysterical", said Mazin Qumsiyeh, one of the organizers of the Welcome to Palestine programme. "They simply don't want the world to know what's going on in Palestine," he said, The Guardian reported.
* * *
The Guardian/UK: Israel expected to block 'flytilla' of international Palestinian sympathizers
"The provocateurs will be dealt with in a determined and quick way," Israel's public security minister, Yitzhak Aharonovitch, said this week. "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." [...]
Airline representatives were reportedly warned that they would be expected to bear the costs of flying activists back to their point of departure. Flights carrying activists will be diverted to a smaller terminal, where security forces and immigration officials will check and question passengers.
Israel's response was "paranoid and hysterical", said Mazin Qumsiyeh, one of the organisers of the Welcome to Palestine programme and a university professor in Bethlehem. "They simply don't want the world to know what's going on in Palestine," he said. [...]
The mayor of Bethlehem, Victor Batarseh, told a press conference this week: "These people are coming to talk about peace, they are not coming to wage war against Israel. They are coming to visit the Palestinian people who are under occupation and to talk to them and to help them because these people are isolated."
Thousands of peace activists will be attempting a "fly-in" or "flytilla" to Israel's Ben Gurion airport near Tel Aviv this weekend before heading to Bethlehem in the West Bank in a call to end the occupation and bring attention to Israel's blockade and control over the occupied territories.
Israel has reacted by creating a blacklist of names of activists to block them from flying out of their home countries, and plans on singling out any activists when they arrive at Ben Gurion to deport them upon arrival.
Now, "Dozens of passengers who bought a plane ticket to travel to Tel Aviv Sunday on April 15 were notified Thursday by the airline Lufthansa that their reservation was canceled, 'by order of Israel,'" writes the organizers of the action Welcome to Palestine Initiative 2012.
"Israel has produced a list of names of persons to whom this country denies entry. Yours is on it, which brings us to cancel your ticket and we immediately after will refund to your credit card," employees of Lufthansa reportedly said to the passengers.
Jet2.com has also complied with Israel's request to deny activists passage to Israel.
However, up to 2,000 Palestinian sympathizers, mainly from Europe, will still attempt to board planes en route to Israel this weekend.
Israeli authorities have warned they will not permit entry to "hostile elements" and "provocateurs". Hundreds of police will be deployed to Ben Gurion airport from Saturday night.
Israel's response was "paranoid and hysterical", said Mazin Qumsiyeh, one of the organizers of the Welcome to Palestine programme. "They simply don't want the world to know what's going on in Palestine," he said, The Guardian reported.
* * *
The Guardian/UK: Israel expected to block 'flytilla' of international Palestinian sympathizers
"The provocateurs will be dealt with in a determined and quick way," Israel's public security minister, Yitzhak Aharonovitch, said this week. "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." [...]
Airline representatives were reportedly warned that they would be expected to bear the costs of flying activists back to their point of departure. Flights carrying activists will be diverted to a smaller terminal, where security forces and immigration officials will check and question passengers.
Israel's response was "paranoid and hysterical", said Mazin Qumsiyeh, one of the organisers of the Welcome to Palestine programme and a university professor in Bethlehem. "They simply don't want the world to know what's going on in Palestine," he said. [...]
The mayor of Bethlehem, Victor Batarseh, told a press conference this week: "These people are coming to talk about peace, they are not coming to wage war against Israel. They are coming to visit the Palestinian people who are under occupation and to talk to them and to help them because these people are isolated."
We've had enough. The 1% own and operate the corporate media. They are doing everything they can to defend the status quo, squash dissent and protect the wealthy and the powerful. The Common Dreams media model is different. We cover the news that matters to the 99%. Our mission? To inform. To inspire. To ignite change for the common good. How? Nonprofit. Independent. Reader-supported. Free to read. Free to republish. Free to share. With no advertising. No paywalls. No selling of your data. Thousands of small donations fund our newsroom and allow us to continue publishing. Can you chip in? We can't do it without you. Thank you.