Interior Minister Aryeh Deri ordered his office to launch an inquiry into how the mayor of Dublin managed to enter Israel, despite being explicitly banned.
On Tuesday, Dublin's Lord Mayor Mícheál Mac Donncha landed in Ben-Gurion International Airport, was admitted unhindered into Israel and then continued on to attend a Palestinian solidarity conference in Ramallah the following day.
The Strategic Affairs Ministry, anticipating Donncha's arrival, asked the Population and Immigration Authority to flag his passport so as to implement a 2017 law barring individuals associated with the anti-Israel Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions movement from entering Israel.
The Immigration Authority, charged with protecting the borders under the Interior Ministry, claimed that Donncha was able to go through passport control on arrival due to a spelling mistake.
In response to reports Israel barred his entrance on Tuesday, Donncha tweeted, "I can confirm I am in Ramallah and preparing for tomorrow's conference."
"The Israeli strategic affairs minister did allow me in," Donncha told Newstalk, an Irish radio station. "He said the problem was someone spelling my name wrong."
Donncha earlier said he undertook the trip to Ramallah to "acknowledge that East Jerusalem is the designated capital of Palestine under the two-state solution."
"I am also here to express solidarity with the people of Palestine who are suffering violence from Israeli forces, as witnessed in Gaza most recently with the shooting down of protesters," he added.
Strategic Affairs Minister Gilad Erdan blamed at Deri's office for the gaffe. In a statement released by his ministry, Erdan said his office "gave the Immigration Authority, which is in charge of the border crossings, the full and correct name of the Dublin mayor, as it appears on his official website."
Deri said that "the inquiry is needed to prevent future mishaps such as these and to take lessons from what happened. In any case, with the departure of the Dublin mayor and in light of his activities against Israel, I ordered a letter sent to him forbidding him from entering Israeli territory in the future."
Erdan revealed why from the beginning it was decided to hinder the entrance of the Dublin mayor: "The policy I decided on is clear – whoever consistently acts to boycott Israel will not enter here. The rules of the game have changed, and the State of Israel won't exercise restraint against whoever tried to harm it."
Donncha participates in the Ireland-Palestine Solidarity Campaign, one of the "foremost" boycott movements, according to Erdan. It promotes a boycott of Israel in virtually all possible areas. The group provides its supporters with a guide to identify products from Israel, calling on them to not only stop consuming these products but also act to remove them from shelves in Ireland.
Meanwhile, in southern Ireland, the Cork City Council called for Israeli diplomats to be expelled from Ireland. The Dublin City Council voted to endorse the BDS movement on Monday evening.
