Gush Shalom Calls for Termination of Police Mobilization at Tel Aviv Airport, Welcoming of "Fly-in" Activists

PNN

In a letter Gush Shalom, the Israeli Peace Bloc, sent to the Minister of Public Security Yitzhak Aharonovitch, he calls upon the minister to cancel plans for flooding Israel's Ben Gurion Airport with a massive police force, in preparation for the activist "Fly-in" expected on Sunday.

Shalom's letter to the minister is:

Dear Sir,

According to reports published in the media, Israel's National Police is preparing a large, complex, semi-military operation as its response to the "Fly-in", due on Sunday. It was announced that Deputy Commissioner Benzi Sau has drawn up the operational order, providing for Ben Gurion Airport to be flooded by hundreds of police, with the stated goal of creating "a critical mass facing the demonstrators".

Officers are to be drafted for this "operation" from numerous police stations, and also the Special Anti-Riot Unit and other highly trained forces will be deployed. A senior Central District officer was quoted as saying "We will certainly be firm with them. They will not be able to do anything, when faced with the great force which we can bring to bear".

It is sad to note, Mr. Minister, that you - as well as the commanders of the police force for which you bear responsibility - have learned nothing from the events of the previous "Fly-in". At that time, more than a hundred international activists managed to make their way to Ben Gurion Airport. Not a single one of them took any provocative or violent act, I would like to reiterate the basic facts - though they have already been published extensively by the people concerned themselves, presented on numerous occasions to the international media and published on various websites - and therefore, you must already be familiar with them."

More than a thousand international activists are planning to arrive at Ben Gurion Airport on Sunday, including aged persons, parents with their children and handicapped people in wheelchairs. Their sole aim is to get in a quiet and orderly way to the passport control, like any visitor. Once there, they intend to declare openly and explicitly that they are coming to visit the West Bank at the invitation of various Palestinian civil society organizations as well as of the Mayor of Bethlehem, Dr. Victor Batarseh. If allowed to go through, they intend to leave the airport with no further ado and proceed to their destination. Their program includes being hosted at the Peace Center in central Bethlehem, participating in laying the foundations of a new elementary school in the city, planting fruit trees, rehabilitate wells at villages in the area, and inaugurating a museum. I would like to repeat this point once again: they had no intention of causing any incident at the airport, and therefore the mighty police mobilization is completely unnecessary and a total waste of the taxpayers' money. All that is needed is instruct the passport control officials to answer each and every one of the visitors with the word "Welcome". At a small fraction of the cost of the planned police operation, it would be possible to give each of the visitors a pretty flower on behalf of the State of Israel.

As I wrote to you on the eve of the previous "Fly-in", this mass arrival of activists is a direct reaction to the consistent policy of the Ben Gurion Airport officials, evidently under governmental instructions. When a traveler shows up at the Ben Gurion Airport and openly declares his or her intention to visit West Bank Palestinians, this frank statement would lead to an immediate deportation from the country. Conversely, by lying and fraud, claiming to be an ordinary tourist to Israel, a traveler can get through without any problems and go from the airport directly to the Palestinian territories. Participants in the "Fly-in" could have easily done that, too – but they decided not to lie or cheat and to explicitly declare their intent. It seems to me that the State of Israel, and Israel's National Police specifically, should have encouraged rather than discourage a behavior of honesty and truthfulness on the part of persons arriving at Ben Gurion Airport.

Each day there arrive at the airport delegations of people, Jews and non-Jews, who support the government of Israel's position in the ongoing conflict with the Palestinians. As long as the Palestinians do not posses their own international airport, through which those who want to visit them could come directly, it is inevitable that there would arrive at Israel's airport also people who support the Palestinians and their positions. The State of Israel should respect this fact.

I have no great illusion, Mr. Minister that this letter will cause you to change your position and cancel the huge, aggressive and completely unnecessary operation which the police intend to carry out at the airport on Sunday. Nevertheless, as an Israeli citizen who cares about this country and its future, I feel duty bound to make this call upon you.

Wishing you and yours a happy Passover
Adam Keller,

Gush Shalom spokesperson

 Source

Hundreds to swarm Israeli airport in fly campaign for Palestine

A leading activist on Tuesday blasted Israel's "crazy" reaction to a fly-in campaign of hundreds expected to arrive at Tel Aviv airport this Sunday in solidarity with occupied Palestinians.

Israeli security forces said earlier on Tuesday that they had begun preparations for roughly 2,500 activists flying in primarily from Europe and North America, dubbing the 'Welcome to Palestine' campaign as "hostile."

"We have made arrangements and are prepared for this operation, which is expected to begin from Sunday," police spokesman Micky Rosenfeld told AFP, without giving further details.

Mick Napier, UK coordinator for Welcome to Palestine 2012, said the Israeli government was "whipping up a frenzy" and that the campaign is simply to highlight the right to travel to the occupied West Bank without hindrance.

"The aim is very clear, modest and minimal, it's to highlight the fact that Israel has turned the West Bank into prison and is not allowing the prisoners to receive visitors," he said.

Visitors can access the West Bank, but must lie to Israeli custom officials at Tel Aviv's Ben Gurion airport in order to do so.

"I have been to the West Bank successfully, but in order to do that, I had to lie. When I told them the truth last July, I was hand shackled and taken away."

Napier was part of roughly 100 activists who took part in a similar campaign last summer, and was detained for a number of days without charge.

The UK coordinator said he expected much of the same treatment this time.
"You can be sure that many hundreds will arrive in Tel Aviv. If the signs are anything to go by, the Israelis will imprison them," he said.

Airlines cooperated with Israel last year and prevented hundreds from boarding their flights to Tel Aviv.

Napier said it will be difficult for Israel to repeat the same measures, revealing that the Jewish state had access to a list of names last year that will not be available this time around.

"They [Israel] had a lucky break last time, they managed to get a hold of a list of 322 names on it, they won't have that again. They'll have to put a lot more effort into it," he said.

Napier also warned that campaigners will pursue legal action against airlines if they repeated their actions of last year.

"We'll be putting legal pressure on airlines for breaking contracts and cancelling holidays at the last minute, and that for us will be a domestic forum for us to raise issues of Palestinian human rights."

Israel's 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," Israeli media quoted him telling his forces. "As any other country would do, Israel will stop hostile elements from entering its territory."

Israel maintains a military occupation of the West Bank, and controls all entry points to the territory.

Within the West Bank, indigenous Palestinians are routinely humiliated and harassed at Israeli military checkpoints, which stifle Palestinian movement in their own land.

Campaigners would prefer not to go to Tel Aviv in order to reach the West Bank, Napier said, adding that their sole ambition was to be able to travel to the occupied territory peacefully and freely.

"Because Israel destroyed the Palestinian airport, the only way into the West Bank is through Israeli-controlled checkpoints. We have to go through Tel Aviv [to get to the West Bank], but we don't want to go through Tel Aviv," he said.

The Welcome to Palestine campaign, otherwise known on social media as the 'flytilla', has received the high-profile endorsement of Archbishop Desmond Tutu, author Noam Chomsky, journalist John Pilger and the Palestinian ambassador to the UK.

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