Campaign To Delegitimize Israel

Via The Meir Amit Intelligence and Terrorism Information Center

Anti-Israeli organizations examine implementing propaganda displays based on flying large numbers of activists to Ben-Gurion Airport on commercial flights. They seek to express solidarity with the Palestinians, embarrass Israel and impress the "right of return" on international public opinion. Hamas urged "Palestinian refugees" to fly to Israel's airports for Naksa Day.

Overview

1. Anti-Israeli Palestinian and Western organizations participating in the campaign to delegitimize Israel are apparently preparing various types of anti-Israeli propaganda displays, using Israel's Ben-Gurion International Airport as their stage. Their objectives are to show solidarity with the Palestinians, embarrass Israel and raise international public consciousness for the so-called "right of return." The various groups and networks regard the displays as an alternative and counterweight to the flotilla currently being organized, whose goal ("lifting the siege of the Gaza Strip") they regard as "too narrow" (their goals is "lifting the siege from all Palestine").

2. A call was recently posted on Hamas' main website for "Palestinian refugees" to take regular commercial flights to Israel's airports (referred to as the airports of "Palestine occupied since 1948") on June 4 or 5 as part of the events of Naksa Day (the day commemorating the Arab defeat in the Six Day War) (Palestine-info website, May 28, 2011).

3. We do not have concrete information about practical preparations being made to implement the call. However, during the past year some of the networks and organizations participating in the campaign to delegitimize Israel and bring the "right of return" to public consciousness, tinkered with the idea of sending several hundred refugees (and their descendents) holding foreign citizenship to Ben-Gurion Airport. They would carry copies of the deeds to land and pictures of families who lived in Israel before 1948, demand to return to their houses, and employ lawyers and media backup to oppose deportation from Israel.

4. An initiative is scheduled for June 8, 2011, a month after Naksa Day to send hundreds of activists to Ben-Gurion Airport. They are supposed come from various countries around the world, including Germany. After a protest at the airport, they are expected to go to Judea and Samaria for solidarity meetings with Palestinians. There are 15 organizations planning the propaganda event, most of them territory-based and Palestinian. The most prominent organization is the International Solidarity Movement (ISM), which specializes in obstructing IDF activities in the territories. The ISM sends activists and volunteers from foreign countries to the weekly demonstrations in Bila’in, Ni’lin and other friction points in Judea and Samaria, and its leaders hold central positions in the flotilla project.

5. In our assessment, the planned propaganda displays at Ben-Gurion Airport are also a result of internal competition between the organizations and activists participating in the campaign to delegitimize Israel. Some of the organizations may regard it as an opportunity to stand in the international media spotlight by proposing an innovative initiative which will embarrass Israel and overshadow the flotilla project.[More[html]

Related:
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