2 Members of the European Parliament refused entry to Israel
Lynn Boylan and Rima Hassan were turned away on the same day that Israel and the EU held talks.
Two members of the European Parliament who traveled to Israel on Monday were denied entry to the country and were sent back to Europe.
Irish MEP Lynn Boylan and French-Palestinian MEP Rima Hassan, both of whom belong to The Left group and have been critical of Israeli policy, were turned away at Ben Gurion Airport near Tel Aviv shortly after landing.
Boylan, who chairs the European Parliament’s EU-Palestine delegation, called the incident “disgraceful.”
“This utter contempt from Israel is the result of the international community failing to hold them to account,” she said.
Israeli Interior Minister Moshe Arbel’s office announced in a statement that Hassan would be blocked from entering Israel over her support for boycotting the country. No reason was given for denying Boylan entry.
“Hassan, who is expected to land from Brussels in the coming hour, consistently works to promote boycotts against Israel in addition to numerous public statements both on social media and in media interviews,” Arbel’s office said.
Hassan and Boylan, who were traveling to Israel to meet with Palestinian Authority officials, have called for the EU to suspend its association agreement with Israel over the war in Gaza.
Both MEPs have excoriated Israel over its actions in the besieged strip. Israel’s brutal military assault on Gaza, which followed a deadly terror attack by the armed group Hamas on Oct. 7, 2023, has killed at least 48,000 people, with many more missing and presumed dead.
Hassan ignited a firestorm of criticism in 2024 when she answered “true” to a question about whether Hamas’ Oct. 7 attack was legitimate, and received a police summons in April last year for “apology for an act of terrorism.”
Hassan and Boylan are not the first EU lawmakers Israel has expelled. In 2023 Spanish left-wing MEP Ana Miranda, who attempted to enter Israel as part of an official European Parliament delegation, was stopped at the airport and ordered back to Spain. Parliament President Roberta Metsola said she was “deeply disappointed” by the incident.
Monday’s incident occurred on the same day the EU and Israel restarted a dialogue that has not taken place since 2022. European foreign ministers and High Representative Kaja Kallas met their Israeli counterpart Gideon Sa’ar in Brussels as part of the EU-Israel Association Council.
Speaking at a joint press conference with Sa’ar, Kallas called the cease-fire in Gaza “fragile” and added the EU “cannot hide our concern when it comes to the West Bank.”
She added that Palestinians who have been displaced should be able to return to their homes in Gaza, which should be reconstructed “when the time comes.” Much of the strip has been reduced to rubble by Israeli bombing and bulldozers.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Sunday that Israel was ready to restart fighting against Hamas, with both sides accusing each other of violating the terms of the cease-fire.
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