After hundreds of peace and anti-occupation activists blocked at European airports,124 detained in Israel and face deportation. But, dozens have managed to reach Palestinian Authority territories.

The Israeli police arrested dozens, yesterday at Ben-Gurion Airport.

Salah Hawaja, one of the leaders of the solidarity activity, said that some 1,000 international activists were scheduled to land in Israel on Saturday, but that due to the moves taken by the State – less than 100 arrived.  He stressed that the solidarity organizations would hold even more extensive activities to recruit additional foreign activists for the battle against Israel’s occupation.

The Palestinian Authority’s envoy to the European Union Lela Shahid slammed European airlines on Friday for preventing European citizens from traveling to Tel Aviv to join solidarity protests with the Palestinian people.

“Is Europe blockaded just like Palestine? On what basis are European solidarity activists blacklisted at airports in European countries to prevent them from flying to Al-Lud [Ben Gurion] airport?” Shahid said in a statement Friday published by Palestinian news agency Ma’an. European solidarity activists were responding to calls by Palestinian civil society organizations to commemorate the seventh anniversary of an International Court of Justice decision which ruled that Israel’s separation wall was illegal, the Palestinian envoy said.

“Authorities in several EU states and European airway companies complied with the Israeli government decision to blacklist a number of European citizens so they can’t travel to Israel.
“Nobody knows the basis for such blacklists, nor does anyone know what crime those people have committed other than trying to express solidarity.”

Shahid added that solidarity activists would have preferred to go straight to Gaza airport instead of going to Tel Aviv first “if Israel had not destroyed Gaza airport in 2002.” A list of 342 blacklisted passengers was distributed to foreign airlines by the Israeli Ministry of Transportation in order to prevent them boarding flights to Israel.

A French activist with the ‘EuroPalestine’ group told Ma’an that Mohammad Al-Amir, Petseyana Leddis and Adrian Rue, who were planning to travel to Ben Gurion airport, had been detained in Paris’s Charles de Gaulle airport. “Israel is dictating laws to France by barring its people from traveling,” she said.  She added that the group of 300 activists are waiting “paralyzed” at the airport having being blocked from travel. “We are a very peaceful movement,” she insisted.

At Roissy airport in France, at least nine activists were prevented from boarding a flight of Hungarian carrier Malev to Tel Aviv via Budapest. Some 50 airline passengers describing themselves as “pro-Palestinian” were prevented from boarding a flight to Israel from Geneva airport on Friday, officials said, prompting flight delays.

In a statement, the organizers of the “flytilla” campaign condemned the Israeli pressure on airlines and threatened legal action. “We call on all airline companies not to accept such provocative, blackmailing, and illegal actions by the Israeli government,” it said.

“Visitors traveling between countries have rights under international law and bilateral travel agreements,” it added. “Those who had reservations cancelled will exercise their right of protest including bringing legal cases in their own countries.” Palestinian lawmaker Mustafa Barghouti said Friday that Israeli hysteria over international solidarity would not stop foreign peace activists.

Barghouti, who is head of the Palestinian National Initiative party, said the Israeli government had turned Ben Gurion airport into a military post and accused Israeli officials of “violating all international navigation laws that regulate flight.”

He slammed Israel’s pressure on international airlines to prevent activities from traveling to the Tel Aviv-area airport on Friday, and pressure on foreign governments to block ships aiming to sail to Gaza from leaving port last week.

International peace activists “will try to reach us, whether on ground or by air, to participate in the actions of the Palestinian popular resistance,” Barghouti said. The Israeli government has been “hit with hysteria because of the wide success of the solidarity movement with the struggle of our people,” he said.