An Irish MEP was refused entry and subsequently deported from Israel.

Sinn Féin's Lynn Boylan was part of an EU delegation which intended to travel to Palestine for discussions with authorities yesterday.

However she was stopped and detained at Ben Gurion Airport in Tel Aviv along with a French-Palestinian MEP and two staff members.

The four members of the delegation had been due to meet with Palestinian authorities, but were deported from the airport.

"We arrived in, we were greeted at the entrance of the plane by a number of security officials," Ms Boylan told The Pat Kenny Show.

"They weren't identified as security officials but they had asked us all to follow them and took our passports and led us down to a security room where they had their own scanner.

"[They] proceeded to take then our phones, our iPads, FitBits and all of our belongings from us.

"They weren't answering any questions but they kept us there for about an hour and forty minutes."

Trip flagged in advance

Ms Boylan said the group had no idea they were being deported until they were escorted back to their plane.

She said this caught the delegation by surprise, as the trip was well-flagged in advance.

"We would have had to get permission from the very highest level of the [EU] Parliament to make this trip," Ms Boylan said.

"Then it would have been co-ordinated with both the EU embassy in Israel and the EU embassy in Palestine."

Al airplane in Ben Gurion Airport , Israel. Image: Itsik Marom / Alamy. 16 July 2015

According to Ms Boylan, all of the delegations movements were also co-ordinated in advance with the Israeli authorities.

"If they had issues with individual MEPs as part of that delegation, there was also a list of substitue members," she said.

"So, they could have flagged and said, 'We object to this person travelling, send another name' - they didn't do that."

"Then two civil servants were caught up in this, which, my understanding is this has never happened before that they have been refused permission into any country in the world."

Passports

Ms Boylan said the members of the delegation who were deported only had their passports returned when they arrived back in Brussels - about seven hours after they were taken.

She also said French MEP Rima Hassan, who is of Palestinian origin, was made to sit down the back on her own during the return flight.

"At one point there was 20 security officials surrounding us and they were filming us the whole time," Ms Boylan said.

"Then we boarded the [return flight] last, so as we boarded the plane, again, people on that plane were taking photographs of us - including of the civil servants.

"Then they told Rima she had to sit down the back on her own, to which point I said I would swap with her and it would be safer if I sat down the back because she's readily identifiable."

Ms Boylan said she was told security would be contacted if she resisted Ms Hassan sitting by herself.

She said she does not believe she was targeted as an Irish MEP, or as a member of Sinn Féin.

Main image: Sinn Féin Senator Lynn Boylan talking to the media on the plinth at Leinster House in August 2021. Picture by: Sam Boal / RollingNews.ie