British MPs barred from Israel return home, say they’re ‘astounded’ by treatment

Two British members of parliament who were refused entry to Israel have returned to London after attempting to visit the West Bank on a fact-finding trip, they said on Sunday.

The two, Abtisam Mohamed and Yuan Yang from Britain’s governing Labour Party, said they were “astounded” by the refusal of Israeli authorities to grant them entry into the country.

Mohamed and Yang said they were traveling as part of a parliamentary delegation, but were stopped at Ben Gurion Airport on the grounds that they intended to provoke anti-Israel activities, according to the Israeli embassy in London.

“We’re astounded at the unprecedented step taken by the Israeli authorities to refuse British MPs entry on our trip to visit the occupied West Bank,” Mohamed and Yang said in a joint statement. “It is vital that parliamentarians are able to witness, firsthand, the situation in the occupied Palestinian territory.”

The Interior Ministry said it barred the two lawmakers from entry since they stated during questioning that the purpose of their visit was “to document Israeli security forces and spread hateful rhetoric against Israel.”

Mohamed and Yang landed in Israel at 2:30 p.m. Satuday on a flight from Luton, England, along with two of their aides. While being interrogated, the two MPs — who both call for boycotting Israel — claimed to have arrived as part of an official delegation on behalf of the UK parliament, but the claim was found to be false as no Israeli entity had verified the arrival of such a delegation, the Interior Ministry’s Population and Immigration Authority said in a statement.

Interior Minister Moshe Arbel, therefore, decided to deny entry to all four individuals “in accordance with the law and ordered their removal from Israel,” according to the statement.

The Israeli embassy in London said Sunday the Interior Ministry had a duty to prevent entry to people who intended to cause the state harm.

“These individuals had accused Israel of false claims, were actively involved in promoting sanctions against Israeli ministers, and supported campaigns aimed at boycotting the State of Israel,” the embassy said.

In their statement on Sunday, Mohamed and Yang defended their remarks, saying they spoke out in Britain’s parliament about the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and the importance of complying with international law.

“Parliamentarians should feel free to speak truthfully in the House of Commons, without fear of being targeted,” they said.

In November, Mohamed asked the British government if it would review its relationship with Israel in light of “atrocities taking place in Gaza, the West Bank and in Lebanon.”

Yang, meanwhile, had urged sanctions against Israeli government officials in parliament.

British Foreign Secretary David Lammy said the detention of lawmakers Mohamed and Yang was no way to treat parliamentarians.

Israel has a history of refusing entry to members of the European Parliament and US Congress.

In February, an EU Parliament delegation scrapped its trip to Jerusalem and Ramallah after two lawmakers were barred from the country upon arriving at the airport.

Rima Hassan, one of the barred lawmakers, had previously called Israel a “terrorist” state and accused its military of having “coldly executed Palestinian children,” while advocating for it to “leave Palestine.”

Then-foreign minister Israel Katz said last October that he would bar UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres from entering the country because he had not “unequivocally” condemned a missile attack by Iran on Israel.