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BETHLEHEM (Ma'an) -- The mayor of Bethlehem on Tuesday urged Israel not to humiliate hundreds of tourists invited to a week-long tour of Palestine.

Some 25 Palestinian organizations have invited internationals to visit Palestine from April 15 - 21 and Mayor Victor Batarseh urged Israel to let them enter and not to humiliate them, at a news conference in Bethlehem.

"We demand our international friends have access to Bethlehem," the mayor said. "It is our right to welcome visitors."

Israel's public security minister, Yitzhak Aharonovitch, said Tuesday that guests of the Welcome to Palestine initiative would be detained and deported, the Israeli news site Ynet reported.

"If they arrive in Israel they will be identified, removed from the plane, their entry into Israel will be prevented and they will be moved to a detention facility until they are flown out of Israel," Aharonovitch said.

Israeli police spokesman Micky Rosenfeld told Ma'an on Wednesday that police were preparing for the visitors' arrival and implementing measures inside and outside the airport. He did not elaborate.

Palestinian organizations have arranged a week-long program, starting Sunday, which includes helping to build a school in Bethlehem and day trips to Hebron, the Jordan Valley, Ramallah and Jerusalem.

All visitors to the West Bank must first pass Israeli border control and many arriving in Tel Aviv's Ben Gurion airport do not tell Israeli security if they will be visiting Palestinian areas as this leads to interrogation and often deportation.

But the "Welcome to Palestine" campaign has asked its guests to be open about their plans to visit the West Bank.

Coordinator Abdul-Fatah Abu Srour told reporters in Bethlehem the participants are declaring their right to say they are coming to Palestine and "we are not hiding it, we are not going to lie about it."

Organizer Mazim Qumsiyeh added: "We cannot understand why Israel wants people to lie about why they are coming."

Qumsiyeh emphasized that the visitors were "normal average Europeans willing to visit people under occupation."

"These are peaceful people that want to visit us here in Bethlehem and the Holy Land," he added.

At least 1,500 people from over 15 countries have booked tickets to participate in the program, organizers say, adding that up to 2,000 could arrive. Most are flying in from Europe but visitors are also coming from Australia, New Zealand, the US and Canada.

The Welcome to Palestine campaign organized a similar program in July 2011 but Israel sent lists of participants to foreign airports who refused to let blacklisted passengers board. Over 120 participants who arrived in Ben Gurion airport were detained and deported by Israel.

Minister Aharonovitch told Israel's Channel 1 on Wednesday that Israel would send blacklists to foreign airports again this week.

But Qumsiyeh said airlines had agreed not to cooperate with Israel's blacklists after facing legal challenges over their refusal to let passengers board last year.

Another Welcome to Palestine organizer told reporters the initiative sent a message to European governments that Israel was "dismissing" their citizens' freedoms.

Israel violates bilateral agreements by deporting Europeans, she said, noting that European countries allowed Israelis to enter freely.

"We reject all attempts to isolate us," Abu Srour added.

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Gush Shalom supports "Welcome to Palestine"

JERUSALEM, April 12, 2012 (WAFA) – An Israeli peace group Thursday called on the Israeli government not to stop international activists who plan to fly into Tel Aviv airport next week to demonstrate their support for the Palestinians.

Under the slogan, “Welcome to Palestine,” some 1000 activists are planning to fly into Israel starting Sunday in order to demonstrate their support for the Palestinian people and to show that Israel does not allow free access and movement for the Palestinian people under its occupation.

Gush Shalom, the Israeli peace bloc, called in a letter to Israeli Minister of Public Security Yitzhak Aharonovitch to cancel plans for flooding Tel Aviv airport with a massive police force in preparation for the arrival of the international activists.

“More than a 1000 international activists are due to arrive, among them aged persons, parents with their children and handicapped people in wheelchairs. They have no intention of carrying out any provocation, and there is no need to mobilize massive police forces. All that is needed is to say the word ‘welcome’ and perhaps also give a flower,” said the group.

“It is sad to note, Mr. Minister, that you - as well as the commanders of the police force for which you bear responsibility - have learned nothing from the events of the previous fly-in,” said the letter.

Gush Shalom insisted that the group, which is going to declare openly and explicitly that they are coming to visit the West Bank at the invitation of various Palestinian civil society organizations and to participate in laying the foundations of a new elementary school in Bethlehem, to plant fruit trees, rehabilitate wells at villages in the area, and inaugurate a museum, have “no intention of causing any incident at the airport.”

It said “the mighty police mobilization is completely unnecessary and a total waste of the taxpayers' money,” adding that “all that is needed is instruct the passport control officials to answer each and every one of the visitors with the word ‘Welcome.’ At a small fraction of the cost of the planned police operation, it would be possible to give each of the visitors a pretty flower on behalf of the State of Israel.”

M.S.