© Uriel Sinai/Getty ImagesIsraeli non-Zionist Matan Cohen welcomes Flytilla protesters to Ben Gurion airport in Palestine! Some 650 policemen were stationed at the airport as hundreds of activists and protesters were due to arrive as part of the "Welcome to Palestine" fly-in protest.
As hundreds of police deployed at Israel's main international airport in a bid to stop activists from entering, Europe's main airlines faced a wave of passenger fury after cancelling some 300 tickets following heavy Israeli pressure.
By late afternoon, Israeli police said they had detained 43 passengers on suspicion of being part of the fly-in campaign, which has become known as the "flytilla," with all facing deportation.
Organisers of 'Welcome to Palestine', now in its third year, had been expecting to welcome up to 1,500 people as part of a campaign to expose Israel's control of movement both into and out of the occupied territories.
But only three activists managed to reach a news conference held by organisers in the West Bank town of Bethlehem in the early evening.
Israel had vowed to prevent the activists' entry, warning airlines they would be forced to foot the bill for the activists' immediate return home.
Scores of activists staged angry demonstrations at airports in several European capitals.
At Roissy-Charles de Gaulle airport outside Paris, protesters carrying banners and Palestinian flags and closely monitored by riot police headed for the Lufthansa desk.
"Today, the checkpoint is in Paris!" the demonstrators shouted.
Their banners read: "Roissy, Palestinian territory" and "Paris, following Israel's orders!"
Lufthansa and Swiss Air both stopped nearly 90 passengers on an Israeli list of undesirable people from taking up their bookings on flights from Paris to Tel Aviv.
At Brussels airport, protests erupted after at least 100 French and Belgian nationals were unable to board flights with Brussels Airlines, Lufthansa and Swiss Air.
© Activestills
At Istanbul airport, another 50 activists were stranded after Turkish Airlines reportedly refused to allow them on board, Anatolia news agency reported.
In Vienna, Austrian Airlines said five passengers were barred from flights to Tel Aviv, and in Rome, Alitalia turned back seven Italian activists, press reports said.
Air France and British budget carrier Jet2.com also confirmed they had barred an unspecified number of passengers.
Diplomatic campaign
Despite the success of its diplomatic campaign to pressure European carriers not to allow activists to board flights for Tel Aviv, Israel deployed hundreds of police at Tel Aviv's Ben Gurion airport with orders to "exercise restraint, but to intercept any troublemakers."
Sunday's arrests took place far from the whirring cameras, with police detaining activists from France, Spain, Italy, Switzerland, Canada and Portugal.
Thirty-one of those detained had refused to board planes back to their homelands, police spokesman Micky Rosenfeld said.
© Uriel Sinai/Getty Images
In addition, Mr Rosenfeld said, "nine Israelis were detained for being involved in public disturbances at the terminal."
At the Bethlehem news conference, one of the three activists who managed to attend slammed the Israeli internal security minister for saying the 'Welcome to Palestine' campaign was provocation.
"We are not criminals," the activist said.
"We should all be able to fight - peacefully - for what we believe in."
Last year, around 800 people tried to join the campaign, with many blocked from flying by airlines.
Another 120 were denied entry by Israel and deported.
Can they FORCE airlines to meet the cost of deportations? Surely this cost rests with the evicting agency?
Then again, airlines can refuse to fly to Israel, just like consumers, of all kinds, can refuse to 'buy' anything from Israel. It works both ways, and I think a certain agency has forgotten that.