Israel’s War Against Palestine: Documenting the Military Occupation of Palestinian and Arab Lands

Irish Nobel Peace Prize laureate refuses deportation from Israel

28 September 2010

By Jack Khoury, Haaretz – 28 Sept 2010
www.haaretz.com/news/diplomacy-defense/irish-nobel-peace-prize-laureate-refuses-deportation-from-israel-1.316211

Mairead Maguire (Photo: Free Gaza)

Mairead Maguire (Photo: Free Gaza)

Irish Nobel Peace Prize laureate Mairead Maguire refused to board a U.K.-bound flight on Tuesday after she was earlier barred by Israeli security from entering the country over her participation in a Gaza-bound aid ship.

In June, Maguire took part in an attempt to break Israel’s maritime blockade on the Gaza Strip as a participant of the Rachel Corrie aid ship. The vassal was intercepted and boarded by the Israeli Navy and led to Ashdod harbor, with Maguire being deported from Israel, along with the ship’s other activists.

Prior to her deportation, Maguire signed a document stating she would refrain from entering Israel again.

Israeli authorities prevented the Irish Nobel laureate from entering the country upon her arrival at Ben-Gurion International Airport on Tuesday, proceeding to escort Maguire to a U.K.-bound flight.

However, Maguire resisted her deportation, causing a scene and refusing to board the flight. The flight’s captain then declared he would not have her on board, finally bringing security Israeli authorities to decide that the Nobel laureate would remain in the country until the following day.

On Wednesday the British embassy is expected to send a delegate to escort Maguire to the United Kingdom.

Maguire won the 1976 peace prize for her work with Catholics and Protestants in Northern Ireland.


IOA Editor: The Haaretz Hebrew version of this story reports that Israeli human rights organizations are filing an urgent appeal to the courts to block Maguire’s deportation:  www.haaretz.co.il/hasite/spages/1191231.html

The complete IOA coverage of the Gaza Flotilla

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