Israeli authorities barred two Swedish members of the European Parliament from entering the country on Sunday, blocking a trip that was to take them mainly to the occupied West Bank, Israel's foreign ministry said on Monday.
The ministry said the population and immigration authority refused entry to Jonas Sjostedt and Hanna Gedin, both members of Sweden's Left Party, at the request of Foreign Minister Gideon Saar and in line with Israeli law governing entry to the country. The two lawmakers had intended to visit the Palestinian Authority.
Israeli diplomats accused the pair of expressing hostile positions and of spreading unfounded accusations against Israel, including claims that it was committing genocide, causing famine, and deliberately targeting children and medical staff in the war in the Gaza Strip.
UN inquiry's findings on Gaza
A UN-mandated international commission of inquiry accused Israel in June of targeting children in the Gaza Strip, again describing an ongoing genocide against Palestinians. The Israeli government dismissed the commission as a defamatory masquerade and accused Hamas of using children as human shields.
MEPs describe being turned away
Sjostedt wrote on Facebook on Sunday that he and Gedin had been prevented from entering the country and continuing their trip to the occupied West Bank and East Jerusalem.
He said they had planned meetings with non-governmental organisations, including Save the Children, visits to refugee camps, and meetings with Israeli and Palestinian human rights organisations, but had not planned any meeting with the Palestinian Authority. Sjostedt said delegations from the European Union and Sweden had protested against the Israeli decision.
Sweden's response
Swedish Foreign Minister Maria Malmer Stenergard said the Swedish embassy had assisted the two elected officials, though she noted that every country sets its own rules on entry. She said Stockholm has issued a travel warning covering trips to Israel and the Palestinian territories.
Malmer Stenergard told the newspaper Dagens Nyheter that the question of why Sjostedt and Gedin chose to go there was one the two lawmakers would have to answer themselves.
Palestinian criticism of the ban
Rawhi Fattouh, president of the Palestinian National Council, the parliament of the Palestine Liberation Organisation based in the West Bank, said the entry ban amounted to an attempt to impose silence by force and to turn criticism of the occupation into an accusation, in what he called clear disregard for international law and the immunity of parliamentary work.
A precedent from 2019
In 2019, Israel similarly barred two members of the US Congress, Ilhan Omar and Rashida Tlaib, both from the left wing of the Democratic Party, who had planned to visit the occupied Palestinian territories. That ban followed their support for a campaign to boycott Israel and came after a prompt from then President Donald Trump.
