April 5 (Reuters) - Israel has detained two British members of parliament and refused entry to the officials who were visiting as part of a parliamentary delegation, British Foreign Minister David Lammy said in a statement late on Saturday.
Sky News, citing a statement from the Israeli immigration ministry, says that the detained parliamentarians are Labour MPs Yuan Yang and Abtisam Mohamed, who were rejected because they were suspected of plans to “document the activities of security forces and spread anti-Israel hatred.”
“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,” Lammy said.
Aye, any Israeli who isn’t actively opposing the settlements in the West Bank is unambiguously in the wrong. And I wish that wasn’t a controversial statement.
You’re right in that Rabin’s assassination wasn’t the change in itself (that such Israeli extremists had continued to exist shows that that violent current in Israel had continued and been bubbling away), but it makes a good mark of a turning point and the loss of really any chance for reconciliation in at least our lifetimes.