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Tension in the air

Itamar Eichner, Yediot, July 7 2011

Starting from tonight until the start of the Sabbath tomorrow [evening], some 22,000 passengers arescheduled to land at Ben-Gurion Airport and pass under the scrutinizing eyes of 750 police officers and

border controllers. These will try to determine, making use of preliminary intelligence, who among thelanding passengers is a tourist, and who is a pro-Palestinian activist who has come in order to take part in theprotest fly-in that has been dubbed Welcome to Palestine.

According to the intelligence held by the police, which was gathered from web sites of extreme left wingorganizations and other sources, between 500-1000 activists are expected to board the dozens of flights thatwill arrive from Europe, the US and Canada and to take part in demonstrations against Israel in JerusalemsSheikh Jarrah neighborhood and near the separation fence in Bilin. The lists of passengers on the flights havealready been handed over to the security forces, with the aim of identifying in advance even lesser-knownactivists. We have reinforced the border control positions, said Amnon Shmuel, director of theImmigration and Population Authority in Ben-Gurion Airport. According to the questions we put to thepassengers, we will try to ascertain who has arrived in Israel for purposes other than sightseeing.

Commander of the Police Operations Branch Cmdr. Nissim Mor added: There are 150 activists who havebeen marked in advance as problematic, and their names have been turned over to the airlines in an attemptto prevent their arrival. Yesterday, three activists were already arrested at Ben-Gurion Airport, and sentback on the plane on which they had arrived.

According to Israeli law, the authority to prevent a persons entry into Israel is held by the interior minister,and when necessary, recommendations are submitted to him by the security establishment regarding aparticular person or group of people. In recent years, about 7,000 foreign volunteers can be found at anygiven moment in the Palestinian Authority territories, who serve as the leading force in the demonstrations inBilin, Hebron, Sheikh Jarrah and Silwan. Usually, they are not denied entry to Israel because they declare atthe border control in Ben-Gurion Airport that the purpose of their arrival to Israel is studies, tourism orfamily visits. The participants of the current protest fly-in will also, apparently, be able to enter Israel by air ifthey refrain from declaring that their intention is to demonstrate against the state. In assessment discussions,

the Foreign Ministry argued that a person could not be denied entry to Israel solely due to his opinions, andstated that such a person could only be arrested if he demonstrated within the states borders, so as to avoiddiplomatic problems.

In our assessment, the activists will prefer to create a provocation and try to clash with us, police officialsassessed yesterday. Their weapons are cameras and cell phones, and the purpose of the event is mainly todamage Israels image around the world and its legitimacy. The police realize that every confrontationbetween a police officer and an activist will be documented and distributed to the world media, and thereforethe police officers are expected to wear dress uniforms or plain clothes, and will not bear firearms. Activistswho declare their intention to participate in protest events against Israel or disturb the peace in the airportwill not be permitted to enter Israel, and will be arrested or deported back to their countries of origin, at theexpense of the airlines that flew them to Israel. As part of the preparations, the holding facility at Ben-

Gurion Airport for people denied entry to Israel has been vacated of detainees, as has the Ela prison insouthern Israelwhich also housed the activists who were on board the MaviMarmaraabout a year ago.

Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu, Public Security Minister Yitzhak Aharonovich and PoliceCommissioner Insp. Gen. Yohanan Danino held a meeting yesterday at Ben-Gurion Airport in advance ofthe fly-in. Netanyahu said at the meeting: We must act firmly against attempts to create provocativeincidents, but we should also avoid undue friction. Political officials voiced criticism of the hysteria and thepanic that Israel projects to the world in dealing with the protest fly-in. Senior political sources say thatalthough it is necessary to prepare for all scenarios, it is impossible to ignore the PR damage created by the

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sight of hundreds of uniformed police officers who have taken over the entrance gate to the country. Theysay that this makes Israel look like a police state that is preparing to face an existential threatwhen inpractice this refers to several hundred left wing activists, about whom there is no fear that they are armed,since they will have undergone security checks at their ports of origin. These are people who may want todisturb the peace, it is not an existential threat and it doesnt justify this kind of panic, they said. Contraryto the elegant handling of the flotilla, where all the actions were ostensibly done behind the scenes and

without leaving a trace, here Israel is acting crudely and looks like a banana republic. After all, it is knownthat there are thousands of pro-Palestinian activists in the territories who enter all the timeso whatdifference will it make if there are 500 more European activists raising End the occupation signs near thefence in Bilin. Defense Minister Ehud Barak commented on the matter, saying: We cant lose our sense ofproportion, and Im sure that Danino and Aharonovich will know how to handle this.