CPTnet
11 July 2011
PALESTINE:  CPTer in “Flytilla” challenges Israeli denial of entry policy; wishes for Israeli children “a life free from fear and hatred.”

 On 8 July 2011, hundreds of internationals attempted to fly to Israeli’s Ben Gurion airport, carrying invitations to visit a refugee camp in the West Bank City of Bethlehem in protest of Israeli denial of entry policy, which prevents Palestinians living abroad and internationals from entering the Occupied Territories.  CPTer John Lynes was one of the dozens of people who flew from the United Kingdom.  Israel submitted names of  participants to various airlines, and some of these airlines chose not to allow the nonviolent activists to board planes in France and Germany.  All twelve of the people who flew from the UK were arrested at Ben Gurion, and, the most recent information indicates, the Israeli authorities took them to a detention center near Tel Aviv.

 Lynes wrote, in a letter to his supporters, “For years I’ve felt  ashamed at the way my Palestinian friends, and their Western well wishers, have been humiliated, intimidated and dehumanised when trying to enter the West Bank through Ben Gurion airport…  The Israelis have destroyed Palestinian airports near Ramallah and Gaza City, so it is now impossible to reach the West Bank except through Israeli Security.  …  Normally the Israeli authorities would deport us, unless we go through the tiresome ritual of persuading them that we are innocent pilgrims or tourists.  This time we are going to tell the truth.  And we will refuse to be deported.  The Israelis must either imprison us, or let us proceed.  In either case, an important point will have been made.”

In January, CPTer Cliff Kindy attempted to join the Hebron team, via Ben Gurion, for the first time since Israel refused him entry in 1998.  He repeatedly told a sequence of sixteen security agents at the airport  that he was a CPT volunteer and had been in Israel/Palestine during the 1990s.  He told some of them about CPT riding bus #18 in Jerusalem as a protest after suicide bombers had hit it twice.

 ”A great deal is changing in Israel/Palestine.  The Palestinian nonviolence movement is making great strides,” Kindy said to the agents.  “Israel arrests and jails the nonviolent leadership to halt that progress.  Many more countries recognize Palestine with pre-1967 borders.  The boycott of Israeli products, divestment from companies profiting by the occupation and sanctions against Israel are adding pressure.”

Afterwards, airport personnel assigned Kindy his own security guard, who refused to allow him to talk to a Palestinian with him in the detention room, so Kindy continued to express his opinion of the situation to muted soccer match on the TV in the room.  Eventually, Israeli security denied Kindy a phone call to the U.S. embassy  and forced him to board a plane back to the U.S.  Those wishing to read a more complete account that Kindy wrote of his experience will find it here.

In the conclusion of the letter to his supporters, Lynes wrote, “I’m not expecting a smooth passage, though many of you will know that I’d love to spend a day or two with old friends in Hebron.  I have chosen this step without bitterness or antagonism.  I wish for the Israelis what I wish for my own children – a life free from fear and hatred.”