Ben Gurion protests cause havoc for vacationing Israelis

Some travelers took extraordinary measures to make sure they would make their flights, given the Ben Gurion protest.

A group of nearly 150 Israeli youth athletes from settlements in the West Bank start to gather at the airport before 6 p.m., despite not departing to South Korea until 11.

“It messed things up for us, but we got over it,” says one of the athletes’ parents. “We love our country and we love our democracy,” she adds.

The Haroush family similarly arrived over five hours early for their flight to Thailand, saying that the protests ruined their day en route to vacation.

Hailing from Beersheba, the five family members say the protest is “a disgrace and an embarrassment.”

“This is the welcome we are giving tourists? What are they going to say about Israel,” says the family matriarch. “They destroyed my ears,” complained her daughter. “It’s so loud.”