Israel denies entry to Gaza to Podemos leader and other Spanish MEPs

A GROUP of European Members of Parliament (MEPs) has been refused entry to the Gaza strip by the Israeli government over concerns that they supported the Palestinian Islamic front Hamas.

One of the MEPs was Pablo Iglesias, a 35-year-old politics lecturer from Madrid whose newly-formed independent party Podemos netted an unprecedented five seats in the European Parliamentary elections in May.

Iglesias – pictured (right) in Jerusalem with his fellow Podemos member Teresa Rodríguez – landed in Tel Aviv on Thursday with the other MEPs, all of whom are in the country to ensure humanitarian aid to Palestinians continues to arrive.

They want to investigate the consequences of the seven-week military offensive by Israel against the Gaza strip, and will talk to Palestinian leaders in Ramala as well as both Israeli and Palestinian civilians during their visit, which ends tomorrow (Sunday).

Iglesias said he and the other MEPs did not understand why they were being prevented from entering Gaza when their visit was for humanitarian purposes.

The Israeli government's foreign affairs ministry spokesman Emanuel Najshon said authorities in the country did not consider the MEPs' visit to be an 'official' one and that they were merely there out of support for the Hamas movement.

“We let official delegates and aid workers enter Gaza, but in practice, we consider the European group are there on a private visit – and after an armed conflict lasting two months, they would clearly be giving Hamas their support.

“And Israel has no interest in letting this happen. If they want to go to Gaza, they can enter via Egypt.”

Diplomatic sources say Israel is 'not comfortable' with their visit due to statements made by certain European Parliamentary members during the attacks which killed 2,100 people – mostly Palestinian civilians – and the fact that their agenda for the trip does not include going to the Israeli side of Gaza.

Iglesias and Teresa Rodríguez were accompanied by another Podemos member, Lola Sánchez, plus MEP for Izquierda Plural ('Plural Left'), Ángela Vallina and Basque political party Bildu's MEP Iosu Juaristi, along with another eight colleagues from the Republic of Ireland, France, Portugal and Cyprus.