LONDON — Two lawmakers from the United Kingdom’s ruling Labour party have been denied entry to Israel and deported.
Yuan Yang and Abtisam Mohamed were rejected because they were suspected of planning to "document the activities of security forces and spread anti-Israel hatred," the Israeli immigration ministry said in a statement, Sky News, NBC’s international broadcasting partner, reported.
The pair had flown into Israel’s Ben Gurion Airport from London’s Luton Airport on Saturday.
According to Sky News, the statement said the lawmakers said they were visiting Israel "as part of an official parliamentary delegation," which the Israeli ministry countered as "false."
Mohamed and Yang said in a joint statement Sunday that they were “astounded” to be denied entry.
“It is vital that parliamentarians are able to witness, firsthand, the situation in the occupied Palestinian territory,” they said, adding that their trip had been organized with U.K. charities.
“We are two, out of scores of MPs, who have spoken out in Parliament in recent months on the Israel-Palestine conflict and the importance of complying with international humanitarian law,” the statement said.
In January, Mohamed said in the U.K. parliament that “ethnic cleansing is taking place” in Gaza and called on the British government to deem any future Israeli settlements in the enclave “illegal.”
Israel has repeatedly denied allegations of “ethnic cleansing” in Gaza. The international community largely considers Israeli settlements in Palestinian territories occupied since the Arab-Israeli war in 1967 to be illegal, and United Nations Secretary-General António Guterres has repeatedly warned against ethnic cleansing in Gaza.
British Foreign Secretary David Lammy reiterated in a statement late Saturday that the MPs were part of a parliamentary delegation and called their treatment "unacceptable, counterproductive, and deeply concerning."
“I have made clear to my counterparts in the Israeli government that this is no way to treat British Parliamentarians, and we have been in contact with both MPs tonight to offer our support,” he said.
Lammy added that “the UK government’s focus remains securing a return to the ceasefire and negotiations to stop the bloodshed, free the hostages and end the conflict in Gaza.”