LONDON: Hanna Gedin, a member of the European Parliament, told Arab News that the Israeli government denied her entry this week on political grounds, along with her MEP colleague Jonas Sjostedt.
“Refusing us to enter the West Bank and Palestine, a country that Israel is occupying in violation of international law, indicates that Israel is afraid of what we are going to see,” she said.
Gedin and Sjostedt are from the Left Party in Sweden, where a general election is scheduled for next month. They are the latest EU and UN officials denied entry into Israel, which has taken sweeping measures against critics of its war on the Gaza Strip since late 2023 or those who support sanctions on illegal settlements in the occupied West Bank and Syria’s Golan Heights.
The pair have long been advocates for Palestinian rights, calling Israeli actions in Gaza genocide, where at least 73,431 people have been killed, and 174,437 others have been injured since Oct. 7, 2023.
Black smoke rises following an Israeli strike, carried out after the military warned Palestinian residents to evacuate the area of Maghazi, in the central Gaza Strip, Aug. 23, 2026. (AFP)
