(Ahlul Bayt News Agency) - Some 1,200 human rights campaigners throughout Europe have already purchased plane tickets for the West Bank town of Bethlehem in, what is being billed as, ‘Flytilla 2.’ The mission is a repeat of last year’s thwarted attempt to convene hundreds of pro-Palestinian activists at Tel Aviv’s Ben Gurion Airport.
Deputy Foreign Ministry spokesman, Romain Nadal, said on Monday that, while Paris wanted foreigners to travel freely to the West Bank, Tel Aviv had made it clear it would not allow anybody, who threatened ‘public order’ to enter the occupied Palestinian territories.
The participants have been invited by the Palestinian ‘Welcome to Palestine’ group to attend the opening of an international school and a museum in the occupied territories.
Last year, many sympathizers were similarly invited by a Palestinian group, but Israel prevented them from arriving at the airport by discouraging airlines from flying the activists.
The majority of the estimated 120 participants, who managed to land in Tel Aviv, were detained and kept in deplorable prison conditions, according to the participants.
Israel occupied the Palestinian territories of East al-Quds (Jerusalem) and West Bank in 1967 and later annexed both. The international community has refused to recognize either move.
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