The Paris protest against Israel’s West Bank wall

By Hadi Yahmid, IOL Correspondent

PARIS, March 14 (IslamOnline.net) – Israeli authorities prevented Saturday, March 13, a group of 34 French peace activists from entering the occupied Palestinian territories to visit refugee camps and meet their Israeli peers and Members of Knesset. 

“Air France notified the group that their Paris to Tel Aviv flight was cancelled after Israel had faxed the national carrier a “blacklist” including the 34 activists,” Laila Chahid, the representative of the Palestinian Liberation Organization (PLO) in Paris, said.

The Israeli list included members from various rights groups in France, chiefly the Palestinian-French Friendship Association and Women in Black society. 

Chahid’s statements came during a protest against a separation wall Israel is building in the West Bank, which snakes through vast swathes of Palestinian lands and preset the boundaries of a future Palestinian state.

Among those who took part in the rally was Erlik Alhanan, an Israeli soldier who refused to do his military service in the occupied territories and one of several soldiers and officers who spoke out about their government’s “immoral orders”.

A Women in Black member told IslamOnline.net that airport authorities had informed them about the Israeli move hours before take-off.

Michline, who did not give her full name, said the French activists were scheduled to hold talks with Israeli peace activists, MKs and Palestinian officials, notably President Yasser Arafat.

The group was also to visit Palestinian refugee camps in the West Bank and the Gaza Strip to have a hands-on experience on the daily sufferings of the Palestinians, she said. 

“I don’t see any reason to ban us [from traveling to the occupied territories] unless we will stand witness to the deplorable conditions there, which means that Israel wanted to introduce a blackout on what is going on,” Michline added.

“I once visited the occupied Palestinian territories in November and December 2001 and was touched by the conditions of the Palestinians there”.

Women in Black is a world-wide network of women committed to peace with justice and actively opposed to injustice, war, militarism and other forms of violence.

A documentary named “The Writers of the Borders” is being screened now in France, giving voice to counts of eight famed writers on what they had seen in the occupied territories.

In November 2003, four former heads of the Israeli Shin Beth interior security services warned of the "disastrous"  consequences of Israel's continued occupation of the Palestinian territories.

Condemning the 700km-long wall, a U.N. report said it would lead to severe humanitarian consequences for more than 680,000 Palestinians.