Using Facebook, Israel was able to prevent scores of pro-Palestinian activists from boarding Tel Aviv-bound flights in Europe and detained or deported dozens more upon arrival at its main airport on Friday, heading off attempts by the foreign protesters to reach the West Bank on a solidarity mission with the Palestinian occupiers of Jewish land.
CBC - Israel had tracked the activists on social media sites like Facebook, compiled a blacklist of about 300 names and asked airlines to keep those on the list off flights to Israel.
Payback's a bitch, ain't it?
The attempted “fly-in” or “flytilla” comes after Greece blocked an aid flotilla trying to break the Israeli blockade of Gaza.
On Friday, some 60 of the activists who managed to land in Tel Aviv were detained for questioning, and by early evening, 2 of them had been deported. At one point, two planes from Geneva and Rome were diverted to a secluded area of the airport upon landing and boarded by security.
Organizers of the “Welcome to Palestine” campaign accused Israel of overreacting to what they said is a peaceful mission to draw attention to life under Israeli occupation, including travel restrictions. Israel controls all access to the West Bank.
“This was never about demonstrations at airports. We are on a fact-finding mission. We want to understand what’s going on,” said Pippa Bartolotti, 57, a British activist from Wales.
She said she was the only person from a 40-member group on a flight from Britain who managed to enter Israel. “Unfortunately everybody else is in a holding bay and expected to be deported,” she said. “There are people from Belgium, France and the U.K.”
Airlines given blacklists to block activists.
Israel has been jittery about the arrival of foreign activists since a deadly naval raid on an international flotilla that tried to break Israel’s blockade of the Gaza Strip last year. The incident, in which nine Turkish activists died in clashes with naval commandos, drew heavy international criticism and forced Israel to ease the blockade.
Israel took a series of measures to prevent clashes this time, most notably by barring protesters from the country altogether. Hundreds of police were also deployed at the already heavily fortified Ben-Gurion International Airport.
Israeli Judenrat Commie who protests for the overthrow of the Israeli government
Authorities forwarded a blacklist to foreign airlines, preventing scores from boarding their flights. Yigal Palmor, a spokesman for Israel’s Foreign Ministry, said the list was compiled by following organizers’ preparations on social networks and websites. In all, about 300 people were identified as planning to create “provocations” upon arrival, he said.
“These people announced on their Internet sites that they planned to come here and cause disruptions, and told their friends. We were able to contact other foreign ministries and simply give them links,” Palmor said. Barring entrance in such cases is “accepted practice in any country,” he added.
Recent anti-Israel protests, including deadly clashes along the frontiers with Lebanon and Syria as well as another attempted flotilla last week, were organized on Facebook and other sites. Defence officials say Israel now closely follows activities online. Read the rest on: barenakedislam
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