After an arduous 11-month journey on foot from his country Swedish activist Benjamin Ladraa was detained and denied entry to Occupied Palestine by the Israeli occupation authority (IOA) at Allenby (King Hussein) border crossing with Jordan.
Ladraa arrived at dawn Friday at the Palestinian-Jordanian crossing where he was detained and interrogated by Israeli officers for about six hours before handing him a written order banning his entry to the occupied territories.
“The Israelis didn’t allow me to enter Palestine. I was interrogated for about six hours before they told me I was denied entry. They only gave two reasons for denying me entry one was that they thought I was lying during the interrogation and the other was that they thought I would go to Nabi Saleh [village] and make a demonstration” the Swedish activist said on his Facebook page.
“On this day it has been eleven months of walking and speaking about the human rights violations under the occupation. Now ask yourself why the Israeli state fears one Swedish man so much that they didn’t allow him to enter the country they are occupying. This is the power of activism” he added.
Ladraa began his 5000km journey from Gothenburg Sweden on August 8 2017.
He travelled on foot through several European cities before he went to Turkey Cyprus Lebanon and Jordan and then tried to enter Palestine.
His treacherous walk from Sweden to Palestine according to him was aimed at raising awareness about Israel’s violations against the Palestinians in the occupied territories.
