Israeli security forces said on Tuesday they had begun preparations for a “fly-in” of hundreds of pro-Palestinian activists expected to arrive at Ben Gurion airport this weekend.
“We have made arrangements and are prepared for this operation, which is expected to begin from Sunday,” police spokesman Micky Rosenfeld said, without giving further details.
Hundreds of activists mainly from European countries are expected to try to fly into Ben Gurion airport, near Tel Aviv, with the goal of traveling to the Palestinian West Bank.
The so-called “Welcome to Palestine” campaign, which has been dubbed a “flytilla,” is taking place for a third year.
In 2010, organizers said about 100 activists were able to arrive without incident and travel to the West Bank, access to which is controlled by Israel, but last year, Israel worked with airlines to prevent hundreds of activists from boarding planes bound for Ben Gurion, and detained and later deported others who managed to arrive.
Israeli Public Security Minister Yitzhak Aharonovitch on Monday supervised a meeting of the security forces that will be in charge of the operation at Ben Gurion, including airport authorities, immigration officials and police.
“No provocation will be tolerated,” he said in statements relayed by his office. “As any other country would do, Israel will stop hostile elements from entering its territory.”
Israel has reportedly already contacted various airlines to request that they block activists from boarding flights.
Those who arrive are expected to be arrested by dozens of police deployed at the airport, Israeli radio reported.
However, organizers rejected the Israeli claim that they were planning a “provocation” by “hostile elements.”
“We are not a flytilla, we are not hooligans,” Mazen Qumsieh, one of the event’s organizers, said at a Bethlehem press conference on Tuesday. “The people coming are average, normal Europeans, who want to learn about the situation and visit the people living in the occupation.”
Qumsieh estimated that 1,500 to 2,000 people, primarily from Western Europe, would be arriving. The goal, he said, was “to claim solidarity with Palestinian people.”
“We have a busy program for them, which includes sharing our lives, living with the Palestinian people and getting to know their tragedy. They are coming to show solidarity in a situation of an occupation,” he said. “Even prisoners are allowed visits, we have the right for them to visit us and cooperate with us, in building Palestine and liberating it.”
As for Israeli efforts to prevent activists from boarding planes, Qumsieh said the organizers had “legally challenged airlines in European countries from the last event, and even if the Israeli government gives them [airlines] lists of names, they [airlines] will allow them to board planes.”
A string of rape and assault allegations against the son of Norway’s future queen have plunged the royal family into its “biggest scandal” ever, wrapping up an annus horribilis for the monarchy. The legal troubles surrounding Marius Borg Hoiby, the 27-year-old son born of a relationship before Norwegian Crown Princess Mette-Marit’s marriage to Norwegian Crown Prince Haakon, have dominated the Scandinavian country’s headlines since August. The tall strapping blond with a “bad boy” look — often photographed in tuxedos, slicked back hair, earrings and tattoos — was arrested in Oslo on Aug. 4 suspected of assaulting his girlfriend the previous night. A photograph
The US deployed a reconnaissance aircraft while Japan and the Philippines sent navy ships in a joint patrol in the disputed South China Sea yesterday, two days after the allied forces condemned actions by China Coast Guard vessels against Philippine patrol ships. The US Indo-Pacific Command said the joint patrol was conducted in the Philippines’ exclusive economic zone by allies and partners to “uphold the right to freedom of navigation and overflight “ and “other lawful uses of the sea and international airspace.” Those phrases are used by the US, Japan and the Philippines to oppose China’s increasingly aggressive actions in the
‘GOOD POLITICS’: He is a ‘pragmatic radical’ and has moderated his rhetoric since the height of his radicalism in 2014, a lecturer in contemporary Islam said Abu Mohammed al-Jolani is the leader of the Islamist alliance that spearheaded an offensive that rebels say brought down Syrian President Bashar al-Assad and ended five decades of Baath Party rule in Syria. Al-Jolani heads Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS), which is rooted in Syria’s branch of al-Qaeda. He is a former extremist who adopted a more moderate posture in order to achieve his goals. Yesterday, as the rebels entered Damascus, he ordered all military forces in the capital not to approach public institutions. Last week, he said the objective of his offensive, which saw city after city fall from government control, was to
IVY LEAGUE GRADUATE: Suspect Luigi Nicholas Mangione, whose grandfather was a self-made real-estate developer and philanthropist, had a life of privilege The man charged with murder in the killing of the CEO of UnitedHealthcare made it clear he was not going to make things easy on authorities, shouting unintelligibly and writhing in the grip of sheriff’s deputies as he was led into court and then objecting to being brought to New York to face trial. The displays of resistance on Tuesday were not expected to significantly delay legal proceedings for Luigi Nicholas Mangione, who was charged in last week’s Manhattan killing of Brian Thompson, the leader of the US’ largest medical insurance company. Little new information has come out about motivation,
RSS