Seattle socialist leader and former City Council member Kshama Sawant says Israel has revoked her electronic travel authorisation just days before her planned visit to the Israeli-occupied West Bank, where she was due to meet Palestinian activists and document conditions on the ground. An online campaign has now been launched demanding that Israel restore her travel permission.
Kshama Sawant says she was planning to travel to the West Bank after receiving invitations from Palestinian activists and the Brussels-based International Federation for Rights and Development (IFRD). Her electronic travel authorisation (ETA), she said, had been approved the previous week.
But, according to Sawant, she received an email from Israeli authorities on September 11 informing her that the authorisation had been revoked.
“They don’t even want me knocking at the door,” Sawant said in her podcast, arguing that the decision was connected to her political record of campaigning against Israel’s military actions and for Palestinian rights.
Sawant explained that the ETA is a digital travel permission for citizens of countries whose nationals generally do not require a visa. It allows the traveller to reach an Israeli border crossing, although final entry remains subject to approval by Israeli officials at the crossing.
Her authorisation, she said, was cancelled before she could even reach the border.
Sawant argued that Israeli authorities were attempting to prevent her from visiting Palestinians and drawing attention to what she described as violence and deteriorating conditions in the West Bank.
She said she had planned to meet “courageous Palestinians” facing an increasingly difficult situation and to witness conditions first-hand. Sawant also questioned the fact that access to the West Bank is controlled through Israeli authorities.
“The very fact that Israel gets to deny travel permissions to anyone to Palestine is itself outrageous,” she said in the podcast.
She described the West Bank as an occupied territory and referred to the United Nations and International Court of Justice while making her argument about the illegality of the occupation.
The podcast also featured Yaser, an American citizen living in Turmusaya in the West Bank.
Yaser said residents had been looking forward to Sawant visiting the town and the wider West Bank. He said the purpose of the visit was to allow her to see conditions affecting civilian communities, including what he described as violence by Israeli settlers.
He expressed disappointment after learning that Sawant's travel permission had been cancelled and said activists were working with IFRD to campaign against restrictions affecting pro-Palestinian activists and Palestinian Americans seeking to visit relatives and homes in the West Bank.
Sawant has long positioned herself as a critic of US military support for Israel.
During her recent campaign for the US Congress, she said, her platform called for an end to all US military aid to Israel and a permanent arms embargo.
“I ran as an independent anti-war socialist,” Sawant said while discussing her campaign against Democratic Congressman Adam Smith. She described the campaign as an attempt to challenge the US political establishment over its support for Israel.
She said her decision to visit the West Bank was also part of a broader effort to build an international movement for Palestinian liberation.
Sawant pointed to the case of British left-wing MP Zarah Sultana, saying she too had recently been banned from entering Israel. Sawant argued that the cases demonstrated the difficulties faced by international activists seeking to enter the West Bank to express solidarity with Palestinians. She also referred to Palestinian Americans who, according to her, have faced restrictions when attempting to visit homes and relatives in the occupied territory.
Following the cancellation, supporters launched an online petition demanding that Sawant's travel authorisation be restored.
The campaign calls on Israel to stop preventing pro-Palestinian activists and Palestinians from travelling to the West Bank. It also urges US lawmakers including Adam Smith, Pramila Jayapal, Ro Khanna, Bernie Sanders, Rashida Tlaib, Ilhan Omar and Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez to support the campaign and use their political positions to push for an end to US military aid to Israel and a full arms embargo.
The campaign additionally calls on US Ambassador to Israel Mike Huckabee to press for Sawant and others supporting Palestinian rights to be allowed to enter Israel and the West Bank.
For Sawant, the travel cancellation is part of a wider political struggle.
She recalled her decade on Seattle City Council and said she had previously faced restrictions on travelling to India after campaigning on issues she said challenged the Indian government. Her conclusion was that activists cannot rely only on individual appeals.
“The only way to fight back is not individually but by building international mass movements,” she said.
Despite the cancellation, Sawant said the decision would not change her political position.
“The Israeli state denying me travel rights will not stop me from my goal,” she said, describing that goal as building solidarity for Palestinian liberation and organising a global anti-war movement.
She said she supports the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) movement and called for an end to US military assistance to Israel and a permanent arms embargo.
Sawant urged supporters to sign the petition demanding restoration of her travel authorisation and opposing what she described as attacks on anti-war activists and restrictions affecting Palestinians.
The online campaign remains ongoing.
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