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A Birmingham University professor was ripped from his family and sent packing as he arrived in Israel for the Easter holiday.

Engineering lecturer Kamel Hawwash was forced to leave tearful wife Lina and five-year-old son Adam at Ben Gurion Airport while he flew straight back home.

They had been on their way to spend the break with family in occupied east Jerusalem.

But the University of Birmingham boffin has been blackballed by Israel because of his public support for Palestinians.

Under the country’s new “boycott law”, foreign human rights activists can be kicked out.

Kamel had taken part in a vigil outside Waterstones in Birmingham city centre.

“At passport control, they said to my wife ‘You and your son can go through’,” said Kamel, who has lived in Birmingham for 28 years.

“But then they told me that I had to wait. I was taken to a room while I was interrogated for an hour. One of the officials told me ‘We have a problem’. They decided to separate us and ruin our holiday.”

Photographs taken at the airport show Lina and Adam in tears, frantically trying to find out what is going on.

They eventually had to leave the airport and travelled on without the Birmingham academic.

“We had been on our way to see family,” said Kamel. “It is a journey I make every year.

“But last week Israel stopped me from setting foot on its soil.

“The ban extends to my native Palestine, too. I had to leave my wife and son alone in the airport in tears.”

As Israel controls access to the occupied territories, the block prevents him from visiting family in East Jerusalem and the West Bank.

“I am devastated by my denial of entry,” said Kamel. “Firstly, because I could not be with my wife and son for our holiday, but also because I have been denied entry to my homeland.

“I have elderly relatives I will never see again if I am not allowed to enter in future.”

Kamel is a highly respected member of the Palestinian community in Britain. He has chaired the British Palestine Twinning Network, the Midlands Community Association and served as vice-chairman of the Palestine Solidarity Campaign for eight years.

His case has been taken up by Richard Burden, Labour MP for Northfield, who has voiced his concerns to the Israeli Embassy about the country’s new “boycott law”.

Mr Burden said: “The relaxed attitude our ministers are showing to Israel’s actions is scandalous. Human rights defenders in Israel have rightly spoken out against this new law preventing peaceful campaigners from visiting their country.

“It is time for British ministers to speak out, too.”