The Herald "reports",
Massey Student, Amy Thomson tries to enter Israel, and lies on her immigration.
A peace activist was detained for 48 hours before being sent back to New Zealand for trying to enter Israel on a tourist visa.
What qualifications does she have to call herself a "Peace Activist"? None I can see. She is a Palestinian advocate. Not looking for peace, except on her terms
Amy Thomson, 26, was held at Ben Gurion Airport in Tel Aviv on February 26. She tried to enter the country for a three-month voluntary internship at a non-government organisation promoting peace.
Thomson said the Israel Palestinian Centre for Research and Information told her she should claim to be a tourist.
Suspicions were raised when Israeli immigration authorities saw she had recently visited Lebanon, which is in ongoing conflict with Israel.
Duh, like its not hard to Google her and see these for yourself.
The Palmerston North student was ordered to hand over her mobile phone. After refusing to give up her Hotmail account password, she believed her email account may have been hacked.
Thomson was questioned for eight hours about her visit to Israel, who she knew, and her intentions.
She said they asked if she knew Arabic because of her Lebanon visit.
"I said there hadn't been enough time to learn it, given I was there for only three weeks.
"A couple of hours later I was summoned by a new guy who said I think something about being security and intelligence. He asked me a lot of the same questions and grilled me about who I know there.
"He demanded that I tell him about everyone I knew in Israel. It was awful knowing that I may have compromised others working for the peace organisation."
Why? Is it a secret? This sounds like the organisation is not so principled after all.
One interrogator mockingly congratulated her for winning a $500 prize for an essay she had written on Iranian politics which appeared on the Massey University website.
She is a student of Nigel Parsons at Massey University. He is not a peace advocate. He has a picture of Arafat on his wall, and states that Arafat was a hero for breaking off the peace process.
"I felt humiliated and ashamed. Eventually it seemed to me that he had found something out and knew that I had lied about something."
Well you are pretty dumb, so you should be ashamed of that.
Exhausted, after a 24 hour flight and 12 hours questioning, Thomson admitted that she was to work for a non-governmental organisation.
She was transferred to a detention centre and held with other detainees for 36 hours.
Her belongings were confiscated except for an electronic book reader. She was allowed one phone call to the nearest embassy in Turkey.
She said she regretted not being honest but it was a valuable experience.
"I know what it's like for the Palestinians to deal with what they deal with every single day."
This is a secret code, stating that Israel has no right to protect itself against Terrorism.
The centre said it advised interns to travel on tourist visas as they could not get volunteer visas from Israel.
Thomson said the organisation was very apologetic. They said their interns had never been detained.
Thomson was banned from Israel for 10 years.
Seriously, she got off lightly. See what it's like for Jews traveling in Saudi Arabia, or Iran. Perhaps she should see what it's like for Jews to live in Iran, with a constant threat that they could be dragged from the street, tortured or shot without trial. She acknowledges this in her online essay, with almost clinical bypass. None of the emotion that she likes to display here for Palestinians.
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