Lauren Booth, a Palestine campaigner and freelance journalist who writes for the Mail and Mail on Sunday, has been trapped in Gaza for the past two weeks after breaking the Israeli blockade in a boat laden with medical supplies. The Israeli authorities are now preventing her from leaving, ostensibly because she entered the country illegally.
Two peace boats, the “Free Gaza” and the “Liberty”, sailed from Cyprus to Gaza almost three weeks ago carrying 45 activists seeking to bring attention to Israel’s blockade of Gaza.
Most of her fellow protesters left on the same boats they arrived in last week, but Lauren and several other activists chose to remain behind.
Israel controls all access to Gaza, although there is one border crossing at Rafah for pedestrians into neighbouring Egypt. Israel insists, however, on the right to screen all goods travelling from Egypt to Gaza and the pedestrian crossing opens rarely. This means crossing into Israel is now the only realistic means for Lauren to leave.
“This is a punishment, and it’s a warning to the people who may in the future want to come on the boat: imprisonment in the largest internment camp in history,” Lauren told the Times.
“It seems we are political prisoners, if you like, of Egypt and Israel’s blockade of Gaza,” she told Press TV.
Lauren is Tony Blair’s sister-in-law. Tony Blair is official Middle East peace envoy.
A third peace boat is due to arrive in Gaza on September 22 carrying doctors and members of the European parliament.
