The border control in Israel has long been notorious among travellers heading to the occupied Palestinian territories. At Tel Aviv’s Ben Gurion airport and King Hussein Bridge on the Israel-Jordan border, Arab nationals are perpetually stopped, interrogated and denied entry.

However, Israel’s affinity for deportations and entry denials extends past its customary racial discrimination against Arabs, to anyone that could be perceived as being critical of the Israeli occupation.

Israel has always maintained a tight grip on international supporters of Palestine. Notably, since the wave of violence that broke out in October 2015, a growing number of activists, researchers and journalists have been denied access by the Israeli authorities.

With tensions now rapidly escalating following Israeli-imposed additional security measures at the Al Aqsa mosque compound, the number of internationals being banned from the region is only expected to grow.

One Scottish journalist, who asked to remain anonymous, was deported last year at Allenby Bridge. He believes it was his support of Palestine that drove the Israeli authorities’ decision to ban him from entering the region.

“Once they started to question me, they discovered I has written articles critical of the occupation. While this probably wasn’t the sole reason for my deportation, it seemed to me that it certainly played a major contributing factor,” he said.

He was deported and handed a ten year ban on the grounds that he was a “threat to public safety and public order.”

In September 2015, the United Nations Human Rights Council called for international action to curb what it described as "an Israeli campaign to evict international workers".

According to Euro-Med figures, there has been a notable increase in the number of forced cancellations of trips and deportations or denials of entry, to both Gaza and the West Bank. Deportations are estimated to have rise to around 10 percent in 2016, from just one or two percent in the three years prior.

These estimates only include cases reported by UN and international NGO staff, excluding deportations or denials of entry to independent workers and consultants.

Israel's campaign to prevent Palestinian sympathisers from entering the region was further highlighted in March this year, when the Knesset approved a law that forbids granting entry visas or residency rights to foreign nationals who call for economic, cultural or academic boycotts of either Israel or the settlements.

The effects of this new measure made headlines earlier this week, when five members of an interfaith delegation were prevented from boarding their flight to Israel after they openly criticised the Israeli government’s policies towards Palestinians and voiced support for Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) on the state of Israel.

However, Israel’s systematic banning of foreigners who can bear witness to occupation is not only restricted to outspoken activists.

"I have the impression that, considering the behavior and the actions of the Israeli border guards, activism can begin for them with just the mentioning of Palestine, just expressing the intention of going to Palestine is already a challenge for Israel," said a 24-year-old French academic, who has recently completely her Masters thesis on Israel’s iniquitous deportation policy.

"The mention of Palestine seems to challenge their narrative of what is happening there and it seems to suggest an intention or willingness to believe and support Palestinian views," she added.

Her findings are based on interviews with fourteen people who have been deported by Israeli authorities, all of whom hold foreign passports. Most were journalists, NGO workers and academics. All has engaged with Palestine and the Palestinians living in the occupied territories.

In fact, the academic was herself banned after Israeli officials took umbrage to her mention of the phrase ‘‘human rights,’ a subject she was exploring as part of her research at Birzeit University in Ramallah, West Bank.

“Why do you come to Israel for human rights, do we violate human rights in Israel?,” the one interrogator had defensively asked her.

With Israel’s policies of settlement expansion, land confiscation, administrative detentions, and general repression of Palestinian civil society, alongside the increased banning of foreign witnesses to these violations, the answer to that question is indisputable to many.