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Sinn Féin MEP Boylan refused entry to Israel during EU visit to Palestine

Lynn Boylan said the EU must respond to Israel's decision to refuse entry to EU officials
Lynn Boylan said the EU must respond to Israel's decision to refuse entry to EU officials

Sinn Féin MEP Lynn Boylan has said the European Union was "completely blindsided" after she was detained yesterday upon entry to Israel.

Ms Boylan is Chair of the EU Palestine Delegation and was refused entry along with French MEP Rima Hassan and other EU officials at Ben Gurion Airport just outside Tel Aviv in Israel.

She was subsequently deported.

The delegation was travelling to Palestine via Israel for discussions with Palestinian authorities.

Speaking on RTÉ's Morning Ireland, Ms Boylan said the delegation was prevented from doing their job, despite the trip being flagged and approved a number of months ago.

"The job of the delegation is to go and to have that dialogue...we were due to meet with members of the Knesset and we were due to meet with Israeli politicians as well," she said.

"It's about strengthening dialogue. It's about constructive engagement and we were prevented from doing our job yesterday."

The EU officials had their passports, phones and iPads seized, she said.

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Their photographs were taken and circulated on social media, and they were also interrogated for over an hour and a half.

The delegation was then sent on a flight back to Belgium, and their belongings were returned to them on arrival.

Ms Boylan alleged that there were a number of data breaches in the process, and that it was not fair on some civil servants that were also refused entry.

"I have flagged issues of concern I have around Israel's handling of personal data and I will be pointing to the fact that they took my phone and my iPad away from me, which again in terms of breaches of data and privacy.

"I think there's real concerns there from an EU perspective.

"It's unprecedented that civil servants wouldn't be allowed to continue the mission...and then for those civil servants to have their faces put out into the public domain and is deeply concerning."

Ms Boylan said that no official reason had been given to them for their deportation back to Belgium.

"Nothing was flagged in terms of the mission or that they had issues with any of the members of that mission...they had months to refuse my admission in and at every stage of the way they've been informed.

"There were opportunities for them if they didn't want me to go, they could have stopped me from going."

In a statement, the Israeli government said those who have published a call for a boycott on Israel or who have committed to participating in a boycott will not be authorised to enter the country.

"According to the Law of Entry to Israel, foreigners who have published a public call to impose a boycott on the State of Israel, as defined in the Law for the Prevention of Harm to the State of Israel through Boycotts, 5771-2011, or has undertaken to participate in such a boycott, will not be authorized to enter Israel," the statement read.

In an earlier statement, Ms Boylan said the EU "must respond to this disgraceful conduct by Israel".

"This is not only deeply insulting to EU leaders, but poses a real issue for the diplomatic relationship between the EU and Israel.

"European leaders must send a message to Israel and make it clear that they cannot continue to act without consequences."

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