Nobel Women's Initiative

Media Release
--For immediate release--

(Jerusalem), October 4, 2010 - Israel's Supreme Court today rejected an appeal from Mairead Maguire's lawyers, and upheld a deportation order against the Nobel Peace Laureate.  On Friday, the Central District Court in Petah Tikvah rejected Maguire's petition to lift the deportation order issued at the Ben-Gurion International Airport last Tuesday, and ordered Maguire to leave Israel. It is expected that Israeli authorities will escort Maguire to a flight bound for Europe tomorrow.

"What is perhaps most surprising is that Israeli authorities have questioned Maguire's personal integrity," said Jody Williams, a fellow Nobel Peace Laureate who attended the Supreme Court hearing today.  "Mairead's life is dedicated to upholding deeply moral principles--and, in fact, she came to Israel to listen to women who are working for peace through nonviolence.  She is not a threat to Israel's security, and comes to support people on both sides of the conflict."

Maguire arrived in Israel from Frankfurt on Tuesday to join Williams for a women's peace delegation.  Maguire and Williams are co-founders of the Nobel Women's Initiative, a global organization started by six women peace laureates to promote nonviolence in conflict situations.  The purpose of the delegation is to highlight the work of Israeli and Palestinian women peace builders.

At the very moment that Maguire's hearing was underway the women from the delegation were meeting with women from Parents' Circle Family Forum in Jerusalem, comprised of Israelis and Palestinians who have lost loved ones because of the conflict.

"If we who have lost what we have valued the most can sit and talk to each other, surely others can," said one of the women.

Williams and the other members of the delegation have visited Jerusalem, Ramallah, Hebron, Haifa and Nazareth--and met with women's activists, community leaders settlers, academics and members of the Knesset.   

"The women we are talking to on the ground here in Israel and in the West Bank tell us the response of the Israeli government to Mairead's peace activism is consistent with their own experiences," said Williams.  "Israel is pursuing apartheid--and their response to legitimate criticism of this policy is disturbing and unconstructive, as we all try to support peace in the region."

Since Tuesday, Maguire has been living at a holding cell at Ben-Gurion International airport.   Her lawyers report that she is not in good health, and on Friday Maguire was taken for a few hours to the hospital--but still not allowed to call her husband in Ireland.

Last June, Maguire was detained after Israeli naval commandos intercepted and illegally boarded the Irish cargo ship MV Rachel Corrie in international waters. Israeli officials sent Maguire back to Ireland after holding her for several days in a detention center outside of Tel Aviv. At the time she was sent back to Ireland, officials told her she was being 'repatriated' and that there is no official deportation order against her.  
 
Maguire was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 1976 for her extraordinary actions to end the sectarian violence in her native Northern Ireland.

 

For more information, please contact:

Rachel Vincent
Nobel Women's Initiative
613-276-9030 or 613-569-8400, ext. 113.


Download pdf of the media release here