Paul LaRudee, longtime leader of the anti-Israel International Solidarity Movement in northern California, is launching a new initiative dubbed the “Free Palestine Movement” as a new way of challenging Jewish sovereignty in the Land of Israel and embarrassing Israel’s government this coming May. Israel National News obtained a secret document entitled “The Palestinian Return from Exile Project” which outlines a plan by FPM to humiliate the Jewish state on the Gregorian anniversary of Israel’s Declaration of Independence. May 14, known in anti-Zionist circles as the “Nakba” (catastrophe), has seen a number of dramatic anti-Israel initiatives in recent years, but what LaRudee plans for 2010 has the potential, if successful, to dominate the news cycle surrounding Israel’s 63rd Independence Day and loudly promote an anti-Zionist narrative presenting Jews as foreign colonialists guilty of stealing the Jewish homeland from what they would like to present as an indigenous Arab population. On May 14, more than 100 anti-Israel activists, many who are descendants of Arabs fled Israel during the 1948 Arab-Israeli War, are planning to arrive at Ben-Gurion International Airport. The activists, who have been instructed to take a variety of routes and arrive on different flights, will be chosen from among those who have previously been denied permission to enter Israel for security reasons but hold citizenship from countries from which Israel does not ordinarily require visas for visitation. The nationalities of the volunteers will qualify them to board the flights but Israeli customs authorities are expected to stop them upon arrival, place them in detention and attempt to deport them as soon as possible. At this point the activists are instructed to resist deportation through refusing to comply with airline passenger requirements. Previous resistance of this type has shown that the captain of the aircraft will most likely refuse to accept such passengers, who will then be returned to Israeli detention. Lawyers arranged in advance will then argue that the activists should be permitted to exercise their right to enter and remain at least until their cases are heard. Some cases may be appealed to the Israeli High Court and potentially to the International Court of Justice. The message given to the press will be that the activists only want to visit the homes their families allegedly lost during the 1948 War. They will carry copies of documents and pictures supporting their claims and some are expected to carry copies of keys. The activists will insist that although they have the right to return to the places they claim as their homes, they will emphasize that their purpose at this point is merely to visit. The message is intended to be amplified by a network of anti-Zionist organizations, both within Israel and abroad, mostly funded by the European Union and New Israel Fund. The proposed date of May 14 is intended to compete with and build upon news coverage of Israeli independence celebrations in order to present the competing “Nakba” narrative to the world. Well-funded anti-Israel organizations have been successful in recent years in dominating the narrative of the Middle East conflict and outperforming Israel’s government and supporters through superior media savvy, seemingly endless sources of funding and a series of well organized creative campaigns.
