[E-rundbrief] Info 1026 - Flytilla - Palestine solidarity - Israels debacle

[Matthias Reichl]

E-Rundbrief - Info 1026 - Mel Frykberg (IPS): MIDEAST: 'Flytilla' 
Debacle Another PR Nightmare For Israel

Bad Ischl, 11.7.2011

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MIDEAST: 'Flytilla' Debacle Another PR Nightmare For Israel

Mel Frykberg

BEN GURION AIRPORT, Tel Aviv, Jul 10 (IPS) - Confused foreign tourists
arriving at Israel's Ben Gurion International Airport on Friday would be
forgiven for thinking that a terrorist attack was about to take place.

Hundreds of armed Israeli soldiers and police spread throughout the
airport as Israeli police surrounded six Israeli pro-Palestinian peace
activists who were arrested for unfurling Palestinian flags and chanting
pro-Palestinian slogans.

The police were later forced to physically protect the activists
from a mob of angry Israelis in the airport who punched, cursed and
spat at them.

A war was under way but one of a very different kind to which the Jewish
state is used to fighting. One that Israel is taking very seriously but
which it appears to be losing - the PR struggle for international
opinion as the world awaits a UN vote on Palestinian statehood in
September.

Hundreds of pro-Palestinian activists from across Europe and North
America decided to partake of the 'Welcome to Palestine' campaign,
coordinated between 15 Palestinian civil society organisations and
supporters abroad.

The plan was to descend on mass at Ben Gurion and announce their
intention to visit the occupied Palestinian territories where they would
then take part in various activities by the Palestinian organisations.

Due to Israeli restrictions Ben Gurion is the only international airport
into Palestine. Foreigners who declare their intention to visit,
volunteer, or work in the occupied territories upon arrival at the
airport are routinely denied entrance and deported.

This time the activists made no secret of their intentions to visit
Palestine, and the Israelis reacted with preparations verging on
the hysterical according to several Israeli journalists and
political analysts.

Amos Harel in the Israeli daily 'Haaretz' said that the Israeli
authorities' reaction was "hysterical and disproportionate."

"The fly-in, despite the mountains of words written about it over the
past week, does not really pose a security threat to Israel. At most, it
involves several hundred activists coming to Israel from friendly
states, and all those countries conduct extensive security checks on
flights to Israel," commented Harel.

"Thus the chance that any of these activists will manage to smuggle even
a knife into Israel is remote. And a noisy demonstration at the airport
or a mass lie-in in front of passport control would be a public
relations stunt, not a substantive threat to the well-being of Israel's
citizens."

However, Israel's justice ministry, interior ministry, foreign ministry
and several defence departments who were all involved think differently.

So concerned were the Israeli authorities about negative media coverage
reaching the front pages of world dailies that many of the estimated 600
soldiers and police involved in the operation went undercover in
ordinary clothes with no weapons or riot control kits visible.

Security on flights bringing the activists into Israel was beefed up to
prevent friction between them and Israeli passengers. Planes landing
with groups of activists on board were instructed to land away from the
terminal where arriving flights from abroad usually arrive.

Several journalists were physically escorted from the terminal by
Israeli security, and others were barred from entering. However, many
made it in, including IPS, resulting in saturation coverage of the
arrest of the Israeli activists and the immediate deportation of dozens
of foreign activists.

Over 300 activists were turned away at their airports of origin in
Europe after Israel presented several airlines with a passenger
blacklist. Despite the draconian measures, well over 100 made it to Ben
Gurion, with several dozen managing to slip through security questioning
and make it to the Palestinian West Bank after posing as "innocent
tourists".

The estimated 100 plus activists who didn't make it through the hours of
grilling by Israeli security agents are now languishing in several
Israeli prisons awaiting deportation.

Airlines involved in flying activists back have said that logistics
could be an issue, with flights fully booked. The possibility of
physical resistance on the return flights could also rule out certain
passengers being accepted on board.

Just several weeks ago Israel succeeded in preventing the second Free
Gaza flotilla from reaching Gaza, with diplomatic pressure on an 
economically-
strapped and vulnerable Greek government. The full details of that are
still to be made public.

Sabotage of several boats in Greek ports, and threats to passengers also
succeeded in preventing the boats from sailing.

While Israel won that battle, it lost the publicity war.

"Blocking the flotilla did not discourage the organisers, who are
graduates of the anti-apartheid and anti-white supremacy struggles.
Rather, it provided ample proof of how white Israel is. As a result,
blocking the flotilla only increased their motivation to keep placing
the Palestinians' demand for freedom at the forefront of the
international agenda," commented veteran Israeli journalist Amira Hass
in Haaretz.

Israel's latest PR nightmare comes in the wake of several UN reports
criticising the country for the use of excessive force during Nakba
demonstrations in May to mark Palestinian dispossession when over 20
unarmed demonstrators were shot dead by Israeli forces as they
approached what Israel considers its borders.

Another UN report assailed Israel for using excessive force on the first
Gaza flotilla last year when Israeli commandos shot dead nine Turkish
activists, some of them at point-blank range.

(END/IPS/MM/IP/HD/PI/MF/SS/11)

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