BETHLEHEM, West Bank — Hundreds of police officers fanned out at Ben-Gurion International Airport on Sunday as Israel moved to block scores of pro-Palestinian campaigners from entering the country.
Organizers of the pro-Palestinian campaign said that more than 1,500 foreigners from at least 15 countries had planned to travel to Bethlehem in the West Bank for what they described as a week of peaceful activities in solidarity with the Palestinians. By Sunday evening, only three of them had made it to Bethlehem. Dozens more had been refused entry and were either being flown back where they came from, or were in detention awaiting deportation.
But, in an almost exact replay of a similar attempt by foreign activists to reach Bethlehem in July, most appeared to have been stopped at their points of departure after Israel instructed foreign airlines not to allow them to board their flights.
Israel had provided the airlines with the names of hundreds of people who the government said would face immediate deportation. Once notified, the airlines would bear the responsibility and cost of flying the passengers back.
Israeli officials had branded the activists as provocateurs, bent on causing disorder, and the police said that they were prepared to prevent possible disturbances at the airport. Some visitors were being asked by the immigration authorities to sign pledges that they would not contact members of pro-Palestinian organizations or participate in any pro-Palestinian activities or protests at Israeli-Palestinian friction points.
But the organizers of the campaign, Welcome to Palestine 2012, said that they had no plans to stage demonstrations. A volunteer coordinator, Abdel Fattah Abu Srour, said that the planned activities included laying the foundations for a school, mural painting in refugee camps, helping Palestinian villagers plant trees, and attending cultural and artistic workshops. Campaign organizers also asked arriving activists not to lie about the reason for their visit.
“To make people lie is a problem for us,” said Mr. Abu Srour, a Bethlehem University professor, who is also an actor and playwright. “We want people to come and be honest and be received in a respectful and dignified way.”
At a news conference in Bethlehem, one of the three activists who had reached the city on Sunday introduced herself as Tanya, a French citizen from Lyon. She said that 50 people from Lyon had tried to fly in from Geneva but that about half of them were not allowed to board.
“I don’t really know why I am here,” she said, giving a sketchy account of having been told to follow various Israeli officials through the airport. Somehow, she continued, “I ended up in Israel.”
The nongovernmental groups involved in the campaign work outside the framework of the Palestinian Authority that controls certain aspects of Palestinian life in the West Bank. The main Palestinian news media have displayed little interest in what the Israelis have dubbed “flytilla” — a reference to the flotillas of boats that have challenged Israel’s naval blockade of Gaza.
The Israeli news media, in contrast, have provided intense coverage of the events at the airport after several days of frenzied buildup. And again, like in July, several Israeli commentators criticized the government for its handling of the affair, which they said bordered on hysteria.
“Instead of waiting to present the crackpot activists with flowers, putting them on buses and leading them directly to their destination in Bethlehem, the heads of the defense establishment and security forces have once again lost their minds,” Eitan Haber, a former Defense Ministry official, wrote in the Yediot Aharonot newspaper on Sunday. “At our behest, and only at our behest, the fly-in has become an international story, and now dozens of cameramen will accompany every old lady from Liverpool who arrives on any carrier.”
Another commentator, Ben-Dror Yemini, argued in the Maariv newspaper that the Israeli government should exploit the arrival of the activists to expose the nature of the organizations that invited them, groups that he said opposed a two-state solution of a Palestinian state alongside Israel, but supported “the establishment of a single state; to wit, the eradication of Israel.”
“The organizers of the fly-in have one goal only: to cast Israel as a country that bars access to ‘peace activists,’ ” he continued. “The tragedy is that they are going to achieve that goal.”
The only noticeable change this time was a letter issued by the Israeli prime minister’s office addressed to the activists. The letter was unsigned but bore the official emblem of the State of Israel.
“We appreciate your choosing to make Israel the object of your humanitarian concerns,” it began sardonically. “We know there were many other worthy choices.”
The letter went on to suggest that the activists could have chosen to protest against the Syrian or the Iranian governments or Hamas rule in Gaza.
“We therefore suggest that you first solve the real problems of the region, and then come back and share with us your experience. Have a nice flight,” it concluded.
But the public relations war was not over. Another campaign coordinator in Bethlehem, Amira Musalam, said that the day’s events contradicted Israel’s claim of being the sole democracy in the Middle East. She described the letter as “ridiculous,” adding, “People are not that stupid.”
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