Last Friday, I was getting ready to depart for the UK to join other activists participating in Welcome to Palestine 2012, the same campaign for which I was imprisoned in Israel for four days last summer. I was prepared for another stay in prison. The Israeli government had other plans.
A few hours before I was supposed to leave the US, I received an email from Jet2, the airline on which I was scheduled to fly from Manchester, England to Tel Aviv, saying that the Israeli government had informed them I would not be allowed into the country and Jet2 was canceling my ticket without a refund. I shortly found out about half the US/UK delegation had received the same email. In fact, the Israeli secret police sent a blacklist of 1,200 names to over 20 airlines across Europe. The list included the names of hundreds of activists, but also nearly 500 people who had nothing to do with the campaign, including a French diplomat, a Dutch executive from the pharmaceuticals giant Merck, and several Israelis. Check out some of the dangerous people who were blacklisted along with me, including teachers, nurses and retirees.
I decided to head to the UK anyway. Those of us who were denied boarding had a noisy protest with supporters at the Jet2 check-in counter at Manchester Airport for over an hour, after which Jet2 mysteriously decided to reevaluate their policy and issue refunds to us blacklisted terrorists. Meanwhile, approximately a dozen Welcome to Palestine participants who were not on the blacklist slipped past Israel's Manchester Airport Checkpoint and made it onto the plane to Tel Aviv. Upon arrival, one person was forced back on the plane almost immediately, while the rest were detained in Givon Detention Center in Ramle, the same prison where I was held last July. We expect them to be deported in the next few days.
Today is Palestinian Prisoners Day. 3,500 Palestinian prisoners in Israeli jails are on hunger strike—2,300 for the day and an incredible 1,200 indefinitely. They join four Palestinian prisoners who have been on a hunger strike for 40 days or more: Tair Halala of the Hebron area and Balal Diab of the village of Rai near Jenin (48 days); Hassan Safdi of Nablus (41 days); and Omer Abu Shlal (40 days). Their primary demand is for the end of Israel's policy of administrative detention—a British colonial-era law that allows indefinite detention without charges or trial—and for better conditions and treatment inside Israeli prisons.
Many of the Welcome to Palestine participants who are currently in Israeli prison will be refusing food for the day in solidarity with the Palestinian prisoners' demands. This morning, students in Glasgow occupied the BBC headquarters to demand press coverage of the Palestinian prisoners' campaign. I'm currently in Scotland and will be at a solidarity rally in Edinburgh later today. We are waiting to hear news of when our Welcome to Palestine comrades will be deported--Jet2's next flight out of Israel to Manchester is not until Thursday night.
A few hours before I was supposed to leave the US, I received an email from Jet2, the airline on which I was scheduled to fly from Manchester, England to Tel Aviv, saying that the Israeli government had informed them I would not be allowed into the country and Jet2 was canceling my ticket without a refund. I shortly found out about half the US/UK delegation had received the same email. In fact, the Israeli secret police sent a blacklist of 1,200 names to over 20 airlines across Europe. The list included the names of hundreds of activists, but also nearly 500 people who had nothing to do with the campaign, including a French diplomat, a Dutch executive from the pharmaceuticals giant Merck, and several Israelis. Check out some of the dangerous people who were blacklisted along with me, including teachers, nurses and retirees.
I decided to head to the UK anyway. Those of us who were denied boarding had a noisy protest with supporters at the Jet2 check-in counter at Manchester Airport for over an hour, after which Jet2 mysteriously decided to reevaluate their policy and issue refunds to us blacklisted terrorists. Meanwhile, approximately a dozen Welcome to Palestine participants who were not on the blacklist slipped past Israel's Manchester Airport Checkpoint and made it onto the plane to Tel Aviv. Upon arrival, one person was forced back on the plane almost immediately, while the rest were detained in Givon Detention Center in Ramle, the same prison where I was held last July. We expect them to be deported in the next few days.
Today is Palestinian Prisoners Day. 3,500 Palestinian prisoners in Israeli jails are on hunger strike—2,300 for the day and an incredible 1,200 indefinitely. They join four Palestinian prisoners who have been on a hunger strike for 40 days or more: Tair Halala of the Hebron area and Balal Diab of the village of Rai near Jenin (48 days); Hassan Safdi of Nablus (41 days); and Omer Abu Shlal (40 days). Their primary demand is for the end of Israel's policy of administrative detention—a British colonial-era law that allows indefinite detention without charges or trial—and for better conditions and treatment inside Israeli prisons.
Many of the Welcome to Palestine participants who are currently in Israeli prison will be refusing food for the day in solidarity with the Palestinian prisoners' demands. This morning, students in Glasgow occupied the BBC headquarters to demand press coverage of the Palestinian prisoners' campaign. I'm currently in Scotland and will be at a solidarity rally in Edinburgh later today. We are waiting to hear news of when our Welcome to Palestine comrades will be deported--Jet2's next flight out of Israel to Manchester is not until Thursday night.
This Haaretz article claims those of us who participated in Welcome to Palestine last year are banned for 10 years. If true (and it's certainly possible it's just bluster) this is the first official word I've heard about it, since Israeli officials told us fuck all about what was going on at the time.
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