A former president of the Uniting Church, Rev. Gregor Henderson was among four Australians denied entry into Israel where they were invited to an international conference on Jerusalem in the West Bank city of Ramallah.
Rev. Henderson, who is also a public officer of the Australia Palestine Advocacy Network was turned away at the Israel and Jordan border. The Palestine Israel Ecumenical Network reported that no reason was given by the Israeli officials for the Australians and more than 60 other invited conference guests who were also denied entry into Israel for the conference held on the 11th and 12th April.
Denied conference guests were from different faiths including Muslim, Hindu and Christian and came from countries such as Belgium, Italy, Ghana, Guatemala, Senegal, India, Tanzania, Bulgaria, Kazakhstan and Mozambique.
This was the 9th International Conference on the Holy City of Jerusalem and comes after the recent decision by US President Donald Trump to recognize Jerusalem as the capital of Israel. President Trump also ordered the relocation of the US Embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem, decisions that elicited swift condemnation from United Nations.
Mahmoud Hamad, who was tasked to receive the conference’s guests told Al Jazeera that all guests had Israeli travel permits to enter West Bank.
Read the article in Insights (Uniting Church).