More than 40 Welcome to Palestine activists taking part in "fly-in" blocked entry at Tel Aviv's international airport.
Last Modified: 15 Apr 2012 16:08
More than 40 pro-Palestinian activists have detained by Israeli authorities at Tel Aviv's international airport for taking part in an attempted "fly-in".
The Welcome to Palestine campaign, now in its third consecutive year, aims to gather activists from more than 15 countries in Israel from April 15 to 21 to "challenge the Israeli siege of the occupied territories", it says on its website.
Micky Rosenfeld, an Israeli police spokesman, said on Sunday that 41 people had been refused entry at Ben Gurion airport by early afternoon and would be deported. Four Israeli supporters, two holding "Welcome to Palestine" signs, were also arrested as they waited to greet the arrivals.
Rosenfeld told Al Jazeera, "We know those activists have intentions of arriving here, intentions of causing disturbances both inside the terminal ... to stop the the Isreali aircrafts from coming in."
Al Jazeera's Cal Perry in Tel Aviv said that 60 per cent of the activists had been stopped at their point of origin.
Earlier on Sunday, hundreds of pro-Palestinian activists were prevented by authorities across Europe from boarding flights bound for Tel Aviv.
The Swiss police prevented about 100 pro-Palestinian activists from flying to Ben Gurion airport, according to the Welcome to Palestine campaign website.
Anas Mohammed, the campaign's spokesman, said on Sunday: "The information we have obtained from activists is that there is a high presence of police there and that the police are trying to prevent them from boarding."
"Besides that there has been the confiscation of a passport of one of the activists."
The Swiss and French activists had bought their tickets in advance and were due to fly on a 6:30am local time (04:30 GMT) flight to Tel Aviv, Mohammed said.
"They are going to visit Palestinians who are under occupation, they are going to visit the West Bank."
British airline Jet2.com and French carrier Air France said on Saturday they were cancelling seats on flights to Tel Aviv.
Israel deploys police
Israeli police said on Sunday that hundreds of officers had been deployed at Israel's main airport to detain activists flying in.
An interior ministry spokeswoman said the immigration authority had on Wednesday given airlines the names of about 1,200 activists whose entrance to Israel would be barred.
in full: http://www.aljazeera.com/news/middleeast/2012/04/201241545637130915.html
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