A group of MEPs, including Waterford's Grace O'Sullivan, claim they've just been refused permission to travel to the Gaza Strip by the Israeli government.
MEP O'Sullivan is a member of the European Parliament's Delegation for Relations with Palestine, which was due to conduct a week-long diplomatic visit of Palestine.
They were supposed to be flying into Tel Aviv today, but with minutes to go they weren't able to board.
Unprecedented
Speaking to WLR News from Dublin Airport, the Green MEP says it's a completely unprecedented situation:
"I was supposed to fly out an hour ago to Tel Aviv as part of a European Parliament mission. Unfortunately, just before - literally just before - I stepped onto the plane, I was informed that the mission has been cancelled.
"The reason it has been cancelled is because the chair of our European Parliament committee has been denied entry to Tel Aviv, to Israel, by the Israeli authorities and in fact, we have been denied entry to Gaza, where we wanted to go and see the situation on the ground.
"It's just shocking that this should happen to a European Parliament delegation."
The delegation's chairperson is Spanish MEP, Manu Pineda, who has taken to his social media confirming that he has indeed been refused entry to Tel Aviv.
A letter he has posted from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in Jerusalem states that, "From information received from the competent authorities in Israel regarding the request for the arrival of Mr Manu Pineda, the Ministry wishes to update the Delegation of the European Union that Mr Pineda's arrival to the State of Israel was not approved."
Mañana debería comenzar una misión del @Europarl_EN de #Palestina.
Sin embargo, Israel prohíbe mi entrada como presidente de la Delegación.
La misión ha sido cancelada. pic.twitter.com/5rjaKxKaBQ
— Manu Pineda🔻 (@ManuPineda) May 22, 2022
Israel está bloqueando el trabajo del Parlamento Europeo. Ya comunicó su negativa a dejarnos acceder a Gaza y ahora eleva la tensión impidiendo la entrada a todo el territorio a la presidencia de la Delegación para las Relaciones con Palestina.
— Manu Pineda🔻 (@ManuPineda) May 22, 2022
His accompanying tweets claim that Israel is now "blocking the work of the European Parliament", thereby "raising the tension".
The delegation had a full week of engagements planned, including meeting NGOs in Bethlehem, groups from women's centres, and representatives of the Prisoners of Silence groups.
"There will be consequences"
MEP Grace O'Sullivan says this would have been her first time to travel to the Middle East and would have been among the six heading out from the delegation.
"We have informed the President of the European Parliament, Roberta Metsola, of the situation," she explains from her seat in Dublin Airport, "and we are calling on the head of the European Commission, Ursula Von Der Leyen, and Roberta Metsola to make some kind of a statement to the Israeli authority to say that this just shouldn't have happened.
"Then what I would like to see is that we get an apology and that our trip is organised for a date as soon as possible.
"We're not letting down all those people we were meant to meet in Palestine."
It is extremely unusual for diplomats to be denied entry to a country and MEP O'Sullivan says there must be ramifications:
"There have to be consequences. The fact that the chair was denied entry and we were denied access to Gaza, it does raise questions and this will be raised on the floor of the European Parliament..."
"There will be consequences. It's not a good precedent for the Israeli authorities to do this."
WLR News understands the Minister for Foreign Affairs, Simon Coveney, has also been informed of the situation.
