Justice Denied: Israeli Supreme Court Orders Deportation of Nobel Peace Prize Winner Mairead Maguire, following Adalah's Appeal
(Haifa, Israel) Tonight, 4 October 2010, the Israeli Supreme Court rejected Adalah's appeal on behalf Nobel Peace Laureate Mairead Maguire and ordered her deportation. In doing so, the Court, by Chief Justice Beinisch with Justices Gronis and Hendel, refused to intervene in the Interior Minister's often-used policy of barring entry to Israel of prominent academics and peace activists critical of Israeli occupation policies against Palestinians.
Having spent one-week in detention at Ben-Gurion International Airport, Ms. Maguire will now be forced to return to Ireland within the next 24 hours. The Supreme Court stated explicitly, however, that tonight's decision would not prevent Ms. Maguire from appealing the validity of the 10-year deportation order to the Israeli Interior Ministry from abroad.
The Supreme Court accepted the factual and legal findings of the Central District Court in determining that a deportation order against Ms. Maguire did indeed exist, that she was aware of it, and as such, knowingly violated the order when she arrived in Israel last Tuesday, 28 September 2010. However, Ms. Maguire has maintained throughout all of the proceedings during the course of last week that she was not aware, when she left Israel in June 2010, that a deportation order barring her entry for 10 years had been issued against her. In fact, Israeli security personnel assured Ms. Maguire that no sanctions would arise from her participation aboard the MV Rachel Corrie, which attempted to bring humanitarian aid to Gaza. Had she known that a deportation order existed, Ms. Maguire told the Court, she would not have tried to enter Israel to take part in the delegation of the Nobel Women's Initiative last week. The delegation visited Jewish and Palestinian women peace-builders in Israel and the West Bank.
In Adalah's view, the Supreme Court's reliance on the lower court's decision and the refusal to fully investigate the State's claims of bad faith on the part of Ms. Maguire resulted in a severe miscarriage of justice. Not only were Ms. Maguire's rights violated but also the rights of Israeli and Palestinian peace activists with whom she was to meet this week. This case starkly shows the state's political motivations for refusing Ms. Maguire entry into Israel. Ms. Maguire has devoted her life to peace and non-violence.
Adalah Attorneys Orna Kohn and Fatmeh El-'Ajou represented Ms. Maguire before the Supreme Court. Attending the hearing were Jody Williams, who received the Nobel Peace Prize in 1997 for her work to ban antipersonnel landmines, and who co-founded the Nobel Women's Initiative with Ms. Maguire, and Ann Patterson, the co-founder with Ms. Maguire of Peace People, a pacifist movement that played a critical role in promoting the peace process in Northern Ireland.
Case citation: Administrative Petition Appeal 70220/10, Maguire v. Interior Ministry, et al. (Supreme Court, appeal rejected 4.10.2010)
Background on Ms. Mairead Maguire
Ms. Mairead Maguire was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 1976 for her extraordinary actions to end the sectarian violence in her native Northern Ireland. She shares the award with Betty Williams. In the 30 years since receiving the award, Mairead has dedicated her life to promoting peace, both in Northern Ireland and around the world. Her message is that nonviolence is the only way to achieve a peaceful and just society. Ms. Maguire works with inter-church and inter-faith organizations and is a member of the International Peace Council. She is a Patron of the Methodist Theological College, and the author of “The Vision of Peace: Faith and Hope in Northern Ireland,” published by Orbis Books.
Most recently, in June 2010, Ms. Maguire and members of the Free Gaza Movement set sail on the 'Rachel Corrie Cargo Boat' to help break the blockade on Gaza and bring humanitarian aid to the children and people of Gaza. The boat was intercepted in international waters by the Israeli navy, and it was forced to sail to the Israeli port of Ashdod. Ms. Maguire was detained for two days and then deported from Israel.
Background on Israel's Denial of Entry to Critics of Israeli Policies
This is not the first time that Israel has denied entry to prominent academics and activists who are critical of Israeli policies toward Palestinians. For example, on 16 May 2010, Professor Noam Chomsky was held for several hours at the Allenby Bridge crossing from Jordan to the West Bank, questioned and ultimately denied entry into Israel. The professor, aged 81, was entering the West Bank in order to speak at Birzeit University.
At the order of the Interior Ministry, the Border Police denied Prof. Richard Falk entry to Israel on 14 December 2008. Prof. Falk, the UN Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights in the Palestinian Territories was on his way to the West Bank to carry out his official functions. He was deported from Ben-Gurion Airport on 15 December 2008. For more information, see: http://www.adalah.org/eng/pressreleases/pr.php?file=08_12_15
The Supreme Court Decision, English | Hebrew
Photographs from the court hearings
Photographs from the visit of the Nobel Women's Initiative to Adalah
