After the derailment of the commemorative Flotilla, French activists are taking to the skies in order to shed light on the suffering of Palestinians. Some members of the “Welcome to Palestine” movement are already facing difficulties in obtaining entry to the state of Israel:
In Paris, eight activists were blocked from boarding a Malev Airlines flight on Thursday.
Philippe Arnaud, one of those turned away, has led calls to boycott Israeli products in France.
He said Malev, a Hungarian airline, showed him a list provided by Israeli authorities of some 329 people being barred from Israel, which holds complete control over who can enter and exit the West Bank.
Surprisingly, Germany said that it would not bar any activists from flying who had all of the proper identification and passports. Palestinians living in Germany, however, were not that lucky:
In Europe, German federal police said as long as passengers had valid tickets and passports, they had no grounds to stop any activists at airports there.
But German authorities also said that German citizens of Palestinian descent would not be allowed into Israel. The vast majority of Palestinians are barred from using Israel’s airport.
The Israeli Minister of Public Safety decried some of these activists as “hooligans.” A hooligan is defined as “a person that causes trouble or violence.” The only trouble that these “hooligans” will be causing is the exposure of Israel’s oppressive and atrocious policies towards the Palestinians. Additionally, the only “violence” that these “hooligans” will be causing is defending themselves from Israeli police and security agents who will be watching them very closely, especially as they already have half of the participants names.