Israel revokes Spanish journalist’s travel authorisation ahead of general election

Israel has revoked the travel authorisation of elDiario.es journalist Francesca Cicardi, preventing her from travelling to cover the general election on 27 October, in which Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is seeking re-election. The decision came less than 24 hours before her scheduled flight on Tuesday, despite her having secured both travel approval and official press accreditation.

In an email, Israel’s Population and Immigration Authority, which falls under the Interior Ministry, informed Cicardi that her application, approved on 13 October, had been revoked on 19 October “due to changes in the circumstances of your case”.

When she sought clarification, the authority provided no specific reason: “We inform you that, following the official notification you have received, your travel authorisation has been revoked. Consequently, you will not be able to enter Israel until further notice.” A spokesperson for the authority also declined to explain the decision when approached by elDiario.es.

elDiario.es has learned that the Interior Ministry acted after receiving a “specific recommendation” to deny Cicardi the authorisation it had approved six days earlier. Israel’s Government Press Office had separately granted her the accreditation required to work in the country during her visit and cover the election. That accreditation remains valid.

Ignacio Escolar, editor-in-chief of elDiario.es, said: “They have barred one of our journalists, Francesca Cicardi, from entering the country; she was going to travel there to cover the Israeli elections. And what’s most striking is how it happened. Francesca had all her paperwork in order. Israel had approved her visa as well as her official press accreditation to cover the elections. But with less than 24 hours to go before her flight to Tel Aviv, the Israeli Ministry of the Interior decided to revoke that visa”.

“The only explanation we've been given is that there is a specific recommendation against her. We don't know who made that recommendation, nor do we know why. Francesca has traveled to Israel before without any problems. She has been covering Israel and Palestine for eldiario.es for years. She has reported on the war in Gaza, the West Bank, the hostages, and the Netanyahu government”, Escolar said.

“And she is not the only foreign journalist experiencing something similar. In recent days, there have been more such cases, and the Foreign Press Association in Israel has reported that there are indications that some journalists are being turned away because the Israeli government does not like their reporting. For years, we’ve been told that Israel is the only democracy in the Middle East. This argument is becoming increasingly difficult to sustain, especially in the wake of the massacre in Gaza, which international justice is investigating as genocide. Not only has Israel been preventing the press from freely entering Gaza for years, but it has also been doing so to keep us from reporting on what is happening there”. Escolar said

“Now The Israeli Goverment is also beginning to decide which foreign journalists are allowed to enter Israel. A country that bars journalists cannot claim to have a free press, nor can it claim to be a democracy”, he concluded.

The Israeli embassy in Madrid, to which the immigration authority directed Cicardi to appeal the decision, confirmed the cancellation but offered no explanation. Spanish nationals ordinarily need only an electronic travel authorisation to enter Israel. However, the consulate advised Cicardi to submit a new application for a regular visa, a longer and more complex process that takes between two and four weeks — too late for her to cover the election.

Several elDiario.es journalists, including Cicardi, have travelled to Israel since the war began in 2023 without encountering problems entering the country. They obtained the necessary press accreditation and reported from both Israel and the occupied Palestinian territories.

Francesca Cicardi is a journalist at elDiario.es specialising in the Middle East, with extensive experience reporting on conflict, human rights and the impact of war on civilians. She spent 14 years living and working in Egypt, covering the 2011 Arab uprisings and their aftermath, the conflict in Libya, and the rise and fall of ISIS in Syria and Iraq. A former correspondent for Spanish, Italian and Latin American media, she headed the EFE news agency’s Cairo bureau from 2020 to 2022. Cicardi has covered Israeli politics for years, including before 7 October 2023. Since then, her reporting has addressed the devastating consequences of Israel’s offensive in Gaza, the situation of Palestinians in Gaza and the occupied West Bank, the ceasefire agreement between Israel and Hamas, and the release of hostages.

Other foreign journalists have recently faced similar restrictions, according to Reporters Without Borders (RSF). French journalist Sylvain Mercadier, who works for L’Humanité, also had his travel authorisation revoked last week without explanation. Serena Bilanceri, a correspondent for a German newspaper, was denied entry to Israel and the occupied Palestinian territories.

“RSF is alarmed by the increasing restrictions the Israeli authorities are imposing on the international press,” the press freedom organisation said.

The Foreign Press Association in Israel also reported that a British journalist was detained on arrival at Ben Gurion airport last week and threatened with deportation. The journalist was eventually allowed into the country, but “others have not been so fortunate”, the association said.

“There is evidence to suggest that [journalists] were denied entry or deported because their reporting was deemed unfavourable to Israel,” it said in a statement.

Following the revocation of Cicardi’s travel authorisation, Spain’s Foreign Ministry reiterated its support for press freedom. “The Spanish government defends press freedom and the freedom of Spanish journalists throughout the world,” ministry sources told elDiario.es.

RSF condemned the decision, saying Cicardi was the third journalist to be denied entry to Israel ahead of the election. “First came the exclusion of the foreign press from Gaza, preventing it from reporting on the genocide; then hostility and violence against foreign journalists in the occupied territories; and now the refusal to allow them to cover a process as fundamental to any democracy as elections,” Edith Rodríguez Cachera, president of RSF Spain, told elDiario.es. “It seems clear that Benjamin Netanyahu’s government is determined to eliminate any outside scrutiny that it arbitrarily considers too critical,” she added.

Haaretz, one of the main Israeli media outlets has covered Cicardi's case “amid limits on foreign coverage of election”

elDiario.es is an independent Spanish digital newspaper founded in 2012 and led by editor-in-chief Ignacio Escolar. Majority-owned by its newsroom staff and supported by a community of paying members, it places human rights, equality and democratic accountability at the heart of its journalism. For the past eight years, it has also published reporting from The Guardian in its international desk, bringing its journalism to Spanish-speaking readers.