Israel expelled 25 alleged pro-Palestinian activists who landed at its main airport on Friday and was interrogating another 30 suspects there, police told AFP. "Twenty-five have been sent back where they came from," police spokeswoman Luba Samri said. "Thirty are still being questioned."
Organisers of the "Welcome to Palestine" campaign, which some have called the "flytilla," had said up to 800 activists were to fly in to Ben Gurion Airport near Tel Aviv in a peaceful mission to visit Palestinian families. But Israeli authorities said they largely managed to preempt the campaign by foreign activists - most of them from France - who are demonstrating for the right of access to the West Bank.
Officials said that by notifying foreign airlines of ticket-holders who would not be admitted to Israel they prevented hundreds from boarding at their ports of departure. A statement from the public security ministry quoted regional police chief Benzi Sau as saying a joint operation by police, the foreign ministry and transport officials "prevented the departure of hundreds of activists at their points of departure for Israel."
"Public Security Minister (Yitzhak) Aharonovitch instructed that... forces continue to deploy so as to be able to deal with incoming flights this afternoon, including the prevention of disturbances, while exercising the necessary sensitivity," it added. Immigration spokeswoman Sabine Hadad earlier told AFP: "Israel has given airlines a list of 342 unwanted people, warning them that they will be immediately turned back at the expense of the companies."
Following the warning, "the companies have already refused to take on board around 200 of these passengers," she said, adding that two US activists who arrived were sent back to the United States. Police spokesman Micky Rosenfeld said six Israelis had been arrested in the arrivals hall, which is open to the public. "Six left-wing activists were arrested at the airport after causing a disturbance in the terminal," he told AFP. "They arrived from inside Israel; they didn't come off the planes."