By deporting British MPs, Israel has exposed its brutal border policies to the world
Britain’s Foreign Minister David Lammy delivers a statement on the Israel and Hamas ceasefire deal at the House of Commons in London, on 16 January2025
Gary Spedding reports in Middle East Eye on 9 April 2025:
Israel’s advocacy network is in full swing, promoting a massive smear campaign against two British members of parliament who were recently refused entry to Israel. The sheer level of disinformation, designed to sow confusion and deter serious scrutiny of Israel’s actions, must be roundly challenged.
Labour MPs Abtisam Mohamed and Yuan Yang, who were travelling as part of a parliamentary delegation organised by the Council for Arab-British Understanding and Medical Aid for Palestinians, were denied entry at Israel’s Ben Gurion Airport last weekend. Israel’s allegations that they intended to “spread hate speech” or posed any kind of threat to Israeli citizens are utterly false and ludicrous.
A well-coordinated smear campaign swiftly followed, as Israel’s supporters flooded social media with a series of contradictory and nonsensical statements, alongside openly racist and misogynistic commentary. The tidal wave of hatred included threats of violence.
The Israeli narrative on this incident does not add up. According to my sources, the border officers at Ben Gurion had not received any advance directive to detain the two MPs; rather, it was an ad-hoc move subsequently approved by the interior ministry subjecting the MPs to interrogations about their past public and parliamentary commentary on Israel.
Official statements from the Israeli government and its UK embassy, however, suggest that their detention was standard procedure, accusing the two MPs of aiming “to provoke anti-Israel activities at a time when Israel is at war” and “to harm Israel and Israeli citizens and spread falsehoods about them”.
In February, Israel denied entry to two other politicians from the European Parliament, citing recommendations made in advance by the Ministry of Diaspora Affairs, according to my sources. But there has never has been any such recommendation, at least not publicly, for elected members of the UK parliament.
Opaque justification
Indeed, the chain of events suggests that the frontline Israeli border officers at Ben Gurion Airport had little information or knowledge about Mohamed and Yang until they were detained and their interrogation was underway. Rather, it appears they were profiled by airport staff based initially on their ethnicity and also their desire to witness and document the realities on the ground for Palestinians.