JERUSALEM: Irish Nobel laureate and peace activist Mairead Maguire was on Monday appealing to the Israeli Supreme Court to cancel a deportation order barring her from Israel for 10 years, legal sources said.
Maguire was to appear before three Supreme Court justices in a bid to overturn a court decision handed down on Friday which ordered her deportation within 48 hours.
"This is the last stage — if she loses this appeal, she will be deported," said Salah Mohsen, spokesman for the Adalah legal rights group which is representing her.
The 66-year-old activist arrived in Israel on Tuesday but was denied entry at Ben Gurion airport because she had been deported in June for trying to reach the Gaza Strip by boat in defiance of an Israeli naval blockade.
Adalah lawyers won a temporary injunction against her deportation and took the case to the district court in Petah Tikva near Tel Aviv on Friday, but the court rejected the appeal.
Later that night, Maguire, who has been held in detention at the airport since Tuesday, was taken to hospital for tests after falling ill, Mohsen told AFP.
"She was suffering from dizziness and dehydration so she was taken to hospital for tests," he said. She returned to the detention centre later that night. "She is still very tired but in good spirits," he said.
Maguire was one of 19 activists on board the Irish-owned "Rachel Corrie," which tried and failed to reach Gaza in early June a week after Israeli forces botched a raid on a six-ship flotilla heading for the coastal enclave, killing nine Turkish activists.
She had planned to lead a delegation of women on a week-long tour of Israel and the Palestinian territories to highlight the work of women peace activists.
The arrival of the Northern Ireland peace activist came as the Israeli navy intercepted another boat carrying US, European and Israeli activists which was trying to reach the Hamas-ruled Gaza Strip which has been under an Israeli naval blockade since 2006.
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