Spanish clown suspected of having links with Palestinian militants

Spain’s most famous clown was not allowed into Israel because of suspicions of having links with terrorist organizations, wrote on May 6 newspaper Ha’aretz.
Ivan Prado, which is the organizer of the International Clown Festival in Galicia, arrived in Israel in April. He planned to organize a similar event the Palestinian Authority. Prado was accompanied by a Spanish woman of Arab origin. Employees of security service Shin Bet arrested a clown and his companion at the airport and held there for six hours.

After the interrogation, in which a clown has tried to see if it linked with Palestinian militants, Ivan Prado said that he was not allowed to enter the country. Clown and his colleagues put on a plane back to Madrid.

Returning to Spain, the Prado has launched a press campaign directed against the Israeli security services. Spanish diplomats have expressed extreme displeasure at the incident. At the same time representatives of the Shin Bet, issued a statement which said that the clown has refused to provide security services for information on possible links to Palestinian terrorists.