DN! Israel Deports Nobel Laureate Mairead Maguire

DN! Israel Deports Nobel Laureate Mairead Maguire:

"StartLoving3 | October 05, 2010

Israel Deports Nobel Laureate Mairead Maguire

The Israeli government has deported Irish Nobel Peace laureate and activist Mairead Maguire a week after she was denied entrance at Ben Gurion Airport. For the past week Maguire was held in an Israeli jail as she challenged Israel's decision to ban her from entering the country for ten years. Israel placed the ban on her after she rode on a humanitarian aid boat that attempted to reach Gaza earlier this year. Maguire spoke to reporters on Monday before her deportation. Mairead Maguire: 'I hope the court will allow me to stay in Israel with my Israeli and Palestinian friends.' Reporter: 'Why do you want to come here?' Maguire: 'Because I love this country and I'm very sad there's so much suffering. I come to support all those who are working for peace and reconciliation. There will be peace in this country, I believe it, but only when Israel ends apartheid and the ethnic cleansing of the Palestinian people.'

Fellow Nobel Prize laureate Jody Williams defended Mairead Maguire's attempt to stay in Israel. Jody Williams: 'Mairead believes that she had the right to challenge the state of Israel for trying to keep her out. She does not believe she has done anything wrong when she was on the Rachel Corrie, with the flotilla. It was attacked in international waters. It was dragged—she was dragged to Israel, and then they say she can't come back to Israel. It was not her intention to end up there in the first place.'



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