Cry baby of the Week: Amy Thomson
The Incident: Amy Thomson deliberately tried to breach Israel’s immigration laws so got detained and kicked out (and banned).
A peace activist was detained for 48 hours before being sent back to New Zealand for trying to enter Israel on a tourist visa.
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.
The appropriate response: Apologise, always pays to be polite to immigration officials of any country, don’t get all shouty or start spouting on about rights, and get on the next plane out. There is no way Israeli’s are going to let an Arab sympathising protestor visit their country…It is their country after all, especially if you have written pro-Iranian essays and have your anti-Israel work indexed by Google. Read more »
