4 hours ago
Last Updated:April 07, 2025, 23:49 IST
Two British MPs, Abtisam Mohamed and Yuan Yang, were denied entry into Israel and deported. They accused Israel of "control and censorship." UK officials criticized the move.
Member of Parliament Abtisam Mohamed looks on on the day Britain's Prime Minister Keir Starmer delivers a ministerial statement on Hamas' October 7 attack anniversary and the Middle East at the House of Commons, in London, Britain. (IMAGE: REUTERS)
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.
Hamas’s October 2023 attack on Israel resulted in the deaths of 1,218 people, mostly civilians, according to an AFP tally based on official Israeli figures.
(This story has not been edited by News18 staff and is published from a syndicated news agency feed - AFP)Location :London, United Kingdom (UK)
First Published:April 07, 2025, 23:49 IST
News world Israel Deports Two UK MPs After Denying Them Entry To Palestinian West Bank
