Activism

‘We have cancelled your booking’ — the criminalization of travel to the West Bank is laid bare to the world

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French activists protesting European airlines canceling flytilla passenger flights, 2011.          (Photo: Abu Nawfal)

This Sunday, I was planning to fly to Tel Aviv with up to 1,500 other participants in Welcome to Palestine 2012, a peaceful initiative of travel and solidarity with Palestinians in the West Bank. We had an invitation from over 25 civil society groups across the West Bank. We had the blessing of the mayor of Bethlehem. Our plans consisted of such terroristic activities as laying the cornerstone of a kindergarten, repairing damaged wells, and planting olive trees.

This morning I received the following notice from the airline on which I had purchased a ticket to fly to Tel Aviv:

From: CustomerCare <customercare@jet2.com> Fri, Apr 13, 2012 at 10:21 AM
To: Laura Durkay

Jet2.com Flight LS907 Manchester to Tel Aviv Sunday 15th April 2012

Dear Laura Durkay,

Jet2.com is required by the Israeli authorities to provide Advance Passenger Information in relation to all passengers that it carries on flights to Israel. Advance Passenger Information includes a passenger’s name, date of birth, passport number and nationality.

In accordance with Article 7 of its Terms and Conditions, Jet2.com has provided Advance Passenger Information in respect of your flight from Manchester to Israel. As a result of providing that Information, Jet2.com has been informed by the Israeli authorities that you will not be not permitted to enter Israel. Consequently, if Jet2.com carries you to Israel, you will be refused entry and Jet2.com will be liable for both a fine and your return to Manchester.

As a result, and in accordance with Article 24 of its Terms and Conditions, Jet2.com: “may refuse to carry you where such action is necessary for reasons of safety and/or security and/or to comply with any applicable laws, regulations or orders of any country to be flown from, into or over including laws or regulations relating to Advance Passenger Information requirements.” We regret that, in light of the decision taken by the Israeli authorities, we are unable to accept you for carriage to Israel on this occasion and your booking with Jet2.com has been cancelled.

In accordance with Article 26.3 of its Terms and Conditions, Jet2.com is a non-refundable airline and we will therefore be unable to offer any refund, with the exception of a refund of the applicable taxes paid, as a result of the decision taken by the Israeli authorities.

Jet2.com would like to apologise for the inconvenience caused by the cancellation of your booking, which we hope you will appreciate is totally beyond our control.

Yours sincerely
Jet2.com Customer Care Team

I soon found out I was far from alone. Many other UK participants had received the same notice. In France, Lufthansa had cut to the chase and canceled an entire flight to Tel Aviv.

On the one hand, this is hardly surprising. The Israeli government has a long record of denying entry to any international suspected of sympathy with the Palestinians. And of course this is just the tip of the iceberg—the iceberg being the hundreds of thousands of Palestinians who are unable to return to their own country, even for a brief visit as a tourist.

But it is worth taking a step back to realize how thoroughly absurd and far-reaching these policies have become. With this sweeping denial of entry of hundreds of activists simultaneously, the Israeli government policy of criminalizing mere travel to the Occupied Territories is laid bare for all the world to see.

When I participated in Welcome to Palestine 2011, last July, I was effectively imprisoned for four days simply for answering, when asked where I was going, “Bethlehem.” In the bizarre world of Tel Aviv’s Ben Gurion Airport, even to speak the word Palestine is forbidden.

One of the goals of the Welcome to Palestine initiative is to highlight the fact that, while conditions may not be as dire as in the Gaza Strip, the West Bank is also under Israeli siege, since Israel controls all points of entry and exit. Today, with the willing cooperating of European governments and corporations, that siege extends as far as Brussels, Paris and Manchester. But all the Israeli government has done is ensure that resistance to its policies will reach those shores as well.

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It’s time to implement the motto: “What’s sauce for the goose is sauce for the gander.”

Since Israel sees fit — for political reasons unrelated to terrorism — to shut down a portion of international commercial airtraffic, I think the appropriate BDS response is for citizens to request every European country to shut down commercial airtraffic with Israel — also for political reasons unrelated to terrorism

For how long? How about: until the 650,000 settlers are removed, the wall dismantled, and the siege of Gaza lifted.

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the Israeli government policy of criminalizing mere travel to the Occupied Territories is laid bare for all the world to see

What a joke to suggest there is any element of ‘criminalizing mere travel’ involved here.
Israel is perfectly entitled to prevent entry to those people who are coming to Israel saying they want to do lovely things like plant olive trees, or dig water wells.
Let’s not kid ourselves; the people coming are pro-Palestinian activists affiliated with radical organizations itching to create a show for the media.
Israel did not want this flytilla to have the same repercussions as the Gaza flotilla had and its authorities have been steadfast in ensuring that a deadly charade would not recur.

But all the Israeli government has done is ensure that resistance to its policies will reach those shores as well.

Israel ultimately is in damage control mode and this last remark by Durkay reeks of a pitiable threat that if Israel doesn’t pay heed to us that the whole world will rise up against it.
Yeh yeh.

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RE: ” ‘We have cancelled your booking’ — the criminalization of travel to the West Bank is laid bare to the world”

MY COMMENT: Israels actions in this instance remind somewhat of the way that the Zionists back in the 1930s and 1940s worked so diligently to prevent Jews from being able to flee Germany for the safety of the U.S., Britain, etc.

EXCERPTS FROM “The Origin of the Palestine-Israel Conflict”, Published by Jews for Justice in the Middle East:

(excerpts). . . “In 1938 a thirty-one nation conference was held in Evian, France, on resettlement of the victims of Nazism. The World Zionist Organization refused to participate, fearing that resettlement of Jews in other states would reduce the number available for Palestine.” ~ John Quigley, ‘Palestine and Israel: A Challenge to Justice’
“It was summed up in the meeting [of the Jewish Agency’s Executive on June 26, 1938] that the Zionist thing to do ‘is belittle the [Evian] Conference as far as possible and to cause it to decide nothing… ~ Israeli author Boas Evron, ‘Jewish State or Israeli Nation?’
“[Ben-Gurion stated] ‘If I knew that it was possible to save all the children of Germany by transporting them to England, but only half of them by transporting them to Palestine, I would choose the second — because we face not only the reckoning of those children, but the historical reckoning of the Jewish people.’ In the wake of the Kristallnacht pogroms, Ben-Gurion commented that ‘the human conscience’ might bring various countries to open their doors to Jewish refugees from Germany. He saw this as a threat and warned: ‘Zionism is in danger.’” ~ Israeli historian, Tom Segev, ‘The Seventh Million’…

• Roosevelt’s advisor writes on why Jewish refugees were not offered sanctuary in the U.S. after WWII
…“[Roosevelt] proposed a world budget for the easy migration of the 500,000 beaten people of Europe. Each nation should open its doors for some thousands of refugees…So he suggested that during my trips for him to England during the war I sound out in a general, unofficial manner the leaders of British public opinion, in and out of the government…The simple answer: Great Britain will match the United States, man for man, in admissions from Europe…It seemed all settled. With the rest of the world probably ready to give haven to 200,000, there was a sound reason for the President to press Congress to take in at least 150,000 immigrants after the war…
“It would free us from the hypocrisy of closing our own doors while making sanctimonious demands on the Arabs…But it did not work out…The failure of the leading Jewish organizations to support with zeal this immigration programme may have caused the President not to push forward with it at that time…
“I talked to many people active in Jewish organizations. I suggested the plan…I was amazed and even felt insulted when active Jewish leaders decried, sneered, and then attacked me as if I were a traitor…I think I know the reason for much of the opposition. There is a deep, genuine, often fanatical emotional vested interest in putting over the Palestinian movement [Zionism]. Men like Ben Hecht are little concerned about human blood if it is not their own.” ~ Jewish attorney and friend of President Roosevelt, Morris Ernst, ‘So Far, So Good’

ENTIRE “ORIGIN” BOOKLET – http://archive.org/details/TheOriginOfThePalestine-israelConflict

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Laura needs to sue the Israeli government, at least for the refund of her ticket. They can’t show any legal cause for why she should be required to suffer financial loss for her intent to legally protest Israel’s actions.

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Makes me think of this movie. “Salt of This Sea” (Milh Hadha al-Bahr) from 2008

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6iNVYvhf9Vw

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