By FAWAZ TURKI ARABNEWS

UNLIKE the Gaza Freedom flotilla two years ago that sought to break Israel’s chokehold on the Strip, the Welcome to Palestine 2012 ‘flytilla’ two weeks ago, that sought to show solidarity with Palestinians in the West Bank, did not turn into a story that had legs.

That’s all the pity, because in my view what the roughly 1,500 international human rights activists, from at least 15 countries, had intended to highlight in their visit was, at a seminal level, carried more importance than the message of their counterparts aboard six ships on the doomed flotilla — with its tragic climax on the Marmara — that carried humanitarian aid and construction material to a besieged people inhabiting a strip of land long known as the “biggest open-air prison in the world.”

A recap. The organizers of the Welcome to Palestine 2012 campaign had no ambitions to stage demonstrations or confront the occupation authorities at any level. Their planned activities included laying the foundation for a school, planting trees in villages, participating in cultural workshops, painting murals in refugee camps, attending artistic events such as dabki folk-dancing and musical performances — and the rest of it.

Innocent fun, right? Wrong, because that’s not the way Israeli leaders took it. Rather, by way of response, Israel (now don’t smirk at its laughable self-definition as “the only democracy in the Middle East”) got on its high horse and into full battle gear. As is well known by now, two weeks after the fact, dozens of activists were refused entry at the airport or remained in detention awaiting deportation. Others were stopped at their points of departure in European countries after foreign airlines were instructed by Israeli government officials not to allow them to board their flights. The fate of the dozen or so activists who had somehow made it through was not in the least bit pleasant. In a video widely seen on YouTube, an occupation soldier, Lt.Col. Shlomo Eisner, is seen smashing a 20-year-old Danish activist in the face with his M16 rifle. (The youngster needed several stitches on his lips.)

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