Irish MEP blocked from entering Israel after attempt to visit Palestine

Irish MEP Lynn Boylan has said she will be following up with the Taoiseach and EU Commissioner Michael McGrath about how she was refused entry to Israel and put on a return flight.

Ms Boylan and French-Palestinian MEP Rima Hassan were turned away at Ben Gurion Airport near Tel Aviv shortly after landing on Monday.

The pair had been due to go to Palestine on Monday as part of an official European Parliament delegation.

Israeli interior minister Moshe Arbel’s office announced in a statement that Ms Hassan was blocked from entering Israel over her support for boycotting the country. No reason was given for denying Ms Boylan entry.

The Sinn Féin politician told RTÉ’s Morning Ireland there had been privacy breaches when her diplomatic passport, mobile phone and iPad were taken from her and not returned until she landed again in Belgium.

The refusal of Israel to allow MEPs who were part of an official delegation to travel through Israel to reach Palestine was an insult to all members of the EU, she said.

The Dublin MEP, who is chair of the European Parliament Delegation for relations with Palestine, pointed out that the EU was the largest donor of support to Palestine and its officials and elected representatives needed to be able to be on the ground in Palestine as part of this work.

“It’s particularly insulting that this happened on the same day that the EU itself held a series of talks with Israel as part of the EU-Israel association council, but MEPs and officials trying to travel through Israel were blocked and deported.”

The delegation had also been due to meet members of the Israeli parliament, she said, describing the visit as being about “dialogue and engagement.”

Ms Boylan said the visit had been approved by the European Parliament and co-ordinated with Israeli authorities by the EU embassy in Palestine in advance.

The delegation monitors EU policies towards Palestine, the Middle East Peace Process and the establishment of the two state-solution. It also scrutinises the use of EU funds for Palestine, including to UNRWA.

Both Ms Boylan and Ms Hassan are members of the Left group in the European Parliament, however the delegation is a cross-political grouping.

They were met at the door of the plane in Tel Aviv by several security officials and taken to an interrogation room for around an hour and 40 minutes, Ms Boylan said.

The Dublin MEP said their bags were searched and their phones, tablets, and passports were taken from them. Their bags were also searched.

She told RTÉ on Tuesday they were later escorted to a return plane.

She said: “We were stood there with, again, security around us, so that everybody boarding the plane were aware that we were, I suppose, ‘persons of interest’. We were the reason why their flight had been delayed.

“So they started to film us. Some of them shouted abuse at us, and then we were put onto the plane and we were separated.

“Myself and the two officials were together, but they put Ms Hassan down the very back of the plane on her own, at which point I objected and said I didn’t think it was safe for her to be sitting on her own down the back, but they refused to change and said that they called security if we challenged it.”

Ms Boylan said photographs of her and the other three members of the group have been spread on social media.

She said: “Whatever about being a politician, that’s very unfair on civil servants. They’re just there to do their job.

“It’s unprecedented that civil servants wouldn’t be allowed to continue on the mission.”

She added: “To stop the civil servants traveling and meeting up with the rest of the delegation, and then for those civil servants to have their their faces put out into the public domain is deeply concerning.”

Ms Boylan said her diplomatic passport, provided by Ireland, was not returned until she arrived back in Belgium.

She said they had not been given any reason as to why they were refused entry.

“The EU was completely blindsided by the fact that we were going to be treated in this way,” she added.

Asked if she believed her support for BDS may be the reason she was refused entry, Ms Boylan said: “If that was the case, they had months to refuse my admission.”

She further raised concerns about Israel’s handling of her data and privacy following the seizure of her phone and tablet, as well as her Irish diplomatic passport being taken for hours. – Additional reporting: PA