Irish man denied entry to Israel believes Irish passport viewed as ‘red flag’ at border

A European Parliament employee who was among three Irish citizens refused entry to Israel this weekend has said he believes authorities are “profiling” Irish nationals.

Manus Carlisle, who works as a press officer for the parliament’s Left group, flew from Brussels to Ben Gurion airport in Tel Aviv with the aim of taking part in an olive harvest with Palestinians in the West Bank with his Dutch partner.

He said they were stopped for questioning at the border controls.

“It was clear that we had some red flags on our profile, me and my partner, and one of them it looks like was the Irish passport,” Carlisle said.

Carlisle said the border guards told him that “whenever they see Ireland, they see it as like an anti-Israel country”.

“It was implied throughout the entire conversation that they knew exactly why we were coming. They mentioned that, you know, a lot of westerners are coming to take part in the olive harvest.”

Carlisle then had a second round of questioning with different authorities who seemed to represent internal Israeli security services.

“He basically said: Listen, cut the bullshit. We know exactly what you’re here for. We know that you hate Israel, and we know that you’re involved in some bad organisations that hate Israel too,” Carlisle said.

“The security services guy said: ‘We know everything about you. We know every demonstration you’ve been to. We know every organisation you’ve been working with. We know that you hate Israel’.”

Carlisle had visited the country several times previously to take Arabic language courses and had visited the West Bank.

He and his partner, who works for Oxfam, were both denied entry. They were given denial-of-entry documents that state they were refused due to “public security or safety or public order considerations” and to prevent “illegal immigration”.

Once they were moved into a deportation area they found two more Irish citizens awaiting removal from Israel.

Those two men had been questioned after arrival and their phones searched.

Israel’s Population and Immigration Authority was contacted for comment.