Protesters for Palestine turned away from flight

Members of a campaign group trying to reach Palestine have been stopped from boarding flights from the UK to Israel, organisers said.

Activists from the Scottish Palestine Solidarity Campaign travelled to Manchester Airport on Saturday ahead of scheduled flights to Tel Aviv yesterday morning.

Some 1,500 campaigners from around the world are trying to reach Palestine over the coming days to raise awareness of how Israel controls access into Palestinian areas.

Palestinians have no airport of their own and Israel controls the borders of the occupied West Bank.

Israel’s government is understood to have sent a list of names of suspected activists to several international airlines.

Sofiah MacLeod, a British campaign co-ordinator, said 70 people protested inside Manchester Airport after Jet2.com prevented passengers from boarding the 10am flight to Tel Aviv.

She said 12 participants of the Welcome to Palestine initiative were allowed to board.

Jet2.com confirmed that they would refuse boarding to the UK passengers named by Israeli border authorities.

A spokesman said: “Jet2.com is legally required to provide advance passenger information for all passengers departing from and arriving into the UK to the appropriate immigration authorities.

“As a result, Jet2.com was informed by the Israeli authorities that certain passengers booked to travel on flight LS907 would not be permitted to enter Israel.

“We were further advised that, if we were to allow them to travel, we would be responsible for their immediate return to the UK. In light of this decision by the Israeli authorities, we were unable to accept them for travel on the flight.”