UK MP accuses Israel of 'censorship' over denied entry

LONDON — One of two British lawmakers who were denied entry into Israel at the weekend accused the Israeli government on Monday of being motivated by "control and censorship".

Abtisam Mohamed and Yuan Yang, from the governing Labour Party, flew from London to Israel on Saturday but were blocked from entering the country and deported.

The pair had been due to visit the occupied Palestinian territory of the West Bank.

"This act was not just a diplomatic affront. This wasn't about security. It was about control and censorship," Mohamed told the UK parliament.

She added that it had been "a challenging few days".

Yang said she had not anticipated "the risks of detention and deportation from a British ally".

"People around the world are listening to us, our voice is powerful, and we must continue to use it without fear or favour," she told MPs.

Delivering a statement on the incident to lawmakers, UK Middle East minister Hamish Falconer said it was likely the fist time that British MPs had been "barred" from entering Israel.

"It is no way to treat democratically elected representatives of a close partner nation. We have made this clear at the highest levels in Israel," he said.

Falconer said the Israel government's decision had apparently been taken based on comments the two MPs had made in the House of Commons.

UK Foreign Secretary David Lammy on Saturday called the move "unacceptable, counterproductive, and deeply concerning".

But Israel said the lawmakers' claim to be part of an official parliamentary delegation was "found to be false, as no official body in Israel was aware of such a delegation's visit".

"Further questioning revealed that the purpose of their visit was to document the actions of Israeli security forces and spread hate speech against Israel," the interior ministry statement said in a statement.

Israel resumed intense strikes on Gaza on March 18, ending a two-month ceasefire with Hamas. Efforts to restore the truce have so far failed.

According to the health ministry in the Hamas-run Gaza Strip, at least 1,391 Palestinians have been killed in the renewed Israeli operations, taking the overall death toll since the start of the war to 50,752.