By IRNA,
London : The sister-in-law of former British prime minister, Tony Blair, has recently said that she is being prevented from returning to the UK by Israel after joining a ‘peace boat’ to highlight the plight of Palestinians in Gaza.
“Under international law I’ve done nothing wrong, but for some reason I am effectively being imprisoned here by authorities who wish to punish human rights activists who have come to view the situation in Gaza,” Lauren Booth said.
In an interview with the BBC on Wednesday, Booth said that she had been prevented three times by both Israeli and Egyptian authorities from returning home.
Gaza has been under siege from Israel since Hamas won Palestinian elections more than two-and-a-half years ago. In January UNWRA commissioner general Karen slated world powers for condoning Israel’s brutal siege.
“Gaza is on the threshold of becoming the first territory to be intentionally reduced to a state of abject destitution, with the knowledge, acquiescence and – some would say – encouragement of the international community,” Koning AbuZayd warned.
The 41-year old sister of Blair’s wife joined dozens of campaigners last week from the Free Gaza Movement on two peace boats, but which have now returned to Cyprus.
She said that she had experienced what it was like to be inside “what is effectively the world’s largest internment camp, where individuals who should have the right to travel under international law are withheld in a 40km by 10km camp.”
Booth, a mother of two, called on her brother-in-law to make his visit to Gaza after cancelling a visit in July, saying it was “his duty as Middle East envoy to make sure he makes the effort to come here.”
She did not want to appeal to him “on such a small matter as my own liberty” but instead wanted him to focus on the Palestinians themselves and the “terrible poverty entirely created by the siege.” When he was prime minister, Blair was often publicly criticized by his sister-in-law for some of his government’s foreign policy decisions.
As a journalist and broadcaster, Booth has been a vocal opponent of the war in Iraq, a supporter of the Stop the War Coalition and a member of Media Workers Against the War.