Security forces brace for potential disruption at Ben Gurion International Airport. Two American women affiliated with fly-in to be deported.
Thursday saw Israeli security forces deploy massively at Ben Gurion International Airport ahead of the potentially volatile fly-in. Israel has distributed a blacklist among foreign airlines, featuring names of 300 activists who will not be allowed on Israel-bound flights.
foreign airlines have so far stopped 180 people whose names were included on the list from boarding flights to Israel.

Incoming regular tourists receive flowers- Representatives of Israel's Tourism Ministry handed out flowers to people arriving in Ben Gurion International Airport Thursday evening, as promised earlier by Minister Stats Misezhnikov. some told the representatives they hoped it would be repeated throughout the summer months and not just on that night


Published: 07.08.11

Two American pro-Palestinian activists, who arrived in Israel from Athens overnight as part of the "Gaza fly-in" were stopped at Ben Gurion International Airport and refused entry to the country.

The two arrived at Israel's gates dressed in Gaza flotilla shirts. Border control officers who interviewed them, as they do every individual entering Israel through the airport, determined that "their expressed purpose was to disrupt public order and cause provocation."

The two were refused entry and put on a plane scheduled to head back to the United States later Friday. They did not resist the proceeding.

Interior Minister Eli Yishai said Friday that Israel "will take a firm hand against anyone dismissing its laws, and like any other sovereign state we will use any means at our disposal to prevent people intent on breaking the law from entering the country."

As the interior minister, Yishai has the authority to order deportation.

Thursday saw Israeli security forces deploy massively at Ben Gurion International Airport ahead of the potentially volatile fly-in.

Israel has distributed a blacklist among foreign airlines, featuring names of 300 activists who will not be allowed on Israel-bound flights.

The Population and Immigration Authority said that the foreign airlines have so far stopped 180 people whose names were included on the list from boarding flights to Israel.

Meanwhile, about 50 passengers at the Lufthansa terminal at Paris's Roissy Charles de Gaulle airport were turned back Friday, after French authorities discovered their names were included on Israel's list of "undesirables".

"Roissy-Charles de Gaulle is under Israeli occupation. We are peaceful people who have no intention to create disorder in Ben Gurion Airport," group organizer Olivia Zemor protested.

A Hungarian airline also stopped dozens of French activistsfrom boarding its plane in Paris.

"The activists who were supposed to embark on the Malev flight were denied boarding because their names are on a black list compiled by Israel's interior ministry," Frederic Stella, who was part of the departing group, said.



Incoming regular tourists receive flowers -


Representatives of Israel's Tourism Ministry handed out flowers to people arriving in Ben Gurion International Airport Thursday evening, as promised earlier by Minister Stats Misezhnikov.


Incoming passengers mainly appeared bewildered by the gesture, some telling the representatives they hoped it would be repeated throughout the summer months and not just on that night, ahead of a pro-Palestinian fly-in scheduled to take place over the weekend.

"This is a hopeful act and it raises a smile but I can't help but relate it to today's circumstances," one new arrival said.


"I can't remember ever receiving flowers upon landing in a foreign country," a Russian tourist said. "I hope they save some flowers for the activists who come here over the weekend, to show them that Israel is not just scary. In any case it’s a gesture that I hope will bear fruit."

The gesture did succeed in attracting news coverage, at least. Journalists awaiting any possible occurrence at the airport flocked to the representatives, photographing them as well as the flowers' recipients from all possible angles.


Earlier Misezhnikov explained the gesture. "Ben Gurion Airport must maintain its daily routine and send a message to both tourists and the global media that Israel is a safe and advanced country and an attractive tourism destination," he said.



"The confrontation with pro-Palestinian activists which will no doubt be accomplished in a professional manner by the security forces does not need to break the routine at Ben Gurion Airport."






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