Published : 02-09-2018
The Israeli occupation authorities banned, some few days ago, a group of Palestinian youths from Syria with Swedish citizenship documents, from entering the occupied Palestinian territories, before they were sent back to where they came from.
Speaking with AGPS, Palestinian young man Milad Abu Issa, from Yarmouk Camp, said 25 Palestinians sheltered in refugee camps across the Syrian territories and holding a Swedish citizenship received invitations to attend a conference celebrating Palestine’s cultural heritage in the occupied West Bank.
Abu Issa added that the banned youths took flights from Stockholm, Copenhagen, and Manchester on Friday, August 24, before they landed in the Israeli Ben Gurion Airport, where they got detained and made to endure intensive questioning. Only seven young men were allowed in while the others had been subjected to further questioning.
Abu Issa said questions turned around alleged involvement in anti-Israel boycott campaigns in Europe, adding that investigators forcibly took away his mobile phone to take out his friends’ phone numbers and Facebook accounts.
Abu Issa had been questioned for 20 minutes before he received an arbitrary ten-year ban from Palestine.
The refugee added that the youths had been detained at the airport for periods ranging from 24 to 48 hours.
An investigation officer reportedly asked him: “How come you’re Swedish and you don’t have a blond hair?” to which Abu Issa responded: “I’m a Palestinian from Haifa.” The officer replied: “Haifa is an Israeli city.” Abu Issa answer back: “Haifa is and will forever remain a Palestinian city.”
Prior to his banishment, Abu Issa was dragged, handcuffed, from prison to the airport, where authorities booked him a flight to Brussels and then to Manchester.
The refugee railed against the deportation order, which he described as “illegal”, saying: “Our trip conveys a message to the Israeli occupation that third-generation Palestinians will never ever forget their motherland.”
The Israeli occupation authorities banned, some few days ago, a group of Palestinian youths from Syria with Swedish citizenship documents, from entering the occupied Palestinian territories, before they were sent back to where they came from.
Speaking with AGPS, Palestinian young man Milad Abu Issa, from Yarmouk Camp, said 25 Palestinians sheltered in refugee camps across the Syrian territories and holding a Swedish citizenship received invitations to attend a conference celebrating Palestine’s cultural heritage in the occupied West Bank.
Abu Issa added that the banned youths took flights from Stockholm, Copenhagen, and Manchester on Friday, August 24, before they landed in the Israeli Ben Gurion Airport, where they got detained and made to endure intensive questioning. Only seven young men were allowed in while the others had been subjected to further questioning.
Abu Issa said questions turned around alleged involvement in anti-Israel boycott campaigns in Europe, adding that investigators forcibly took away his mobile phone to take out his friends’ phone numbers and Facebook accounts.
Abu Issa had been questioned for 20 minutes before he received an arbitrary ten-year ban from Palestine.
The refugee added that the youths had been detained at the airport for periods ranging from 24 to 48 hours.
An investigation officer reportedly asked him: “How come you’re Swedish and you don’t have a blond hair?” to which Abu Issa responded: “I’m a Palestinian from Haifa.” The officer replied: “Haifa is an Israeli city.” Abu Issa answer back: “Haifa is and will forever remain a Palestinian city.”
Prior to his banishment, Abu Issa was dragged, handcuffed, from prison to the airport, where authorities booked him a flight to Brussels and then to Manchester.
The refugee railed against the deportation order, which he described as “illegal”, saying: “Our trip conveys a message to the Israeli occupation that third-generation Palestinians will never ever forget their motherland.”
