Blair's in-law Stranded in Gaza

Trying to exit Gaza isn't easy, even when your brother-in-law is Tony Blair. Lauren Booth, whose sister Cherie is married to the ex-British Prime Minister, sailed into Gaza last month aboard one of two vessels chartered by human rights activists trying to draw attention to Israel's blockade on the Palestinian enclave.

When the two ships returned to Cyprus, Booth, a journalist and human rights advocate, stayed behind along with 10 other international activists to examine how the blockade was hurting Gaza's 1.5 million people. “I thought: I have a British passport, no criminal record. Leaving Gaza shouldn't be a problem,” she told me in a telephone interview.

So Booth and the others –Americans, a Dane, an Irishman and several other nationalities-- tried to leave via the Israeli checkpoint at Erez. They were accompanying a middle-aged Palestinian woman who had a medical referral for surgery in Jerusalem to remove a tumor on her spine. The woman had been turned back at Erez seven times in the last eight months, for no apparent reason, says Booth. “She was utterly in pain and desperate.” But when the party arrived at the no-mans' land of Erez, a message was relayed from the Israelis. “We were told to stop or they'd open fire on us,” says Booth, adding caustically, “This is Israel's approach to medical treatment.”

Next, after assurances from the British consul that she and the others would be let out through Egypt, they headed south to Rafah crossing –-only to be kept waiting for three hours in the sweltering heat by the Egyptians, and then denied entry.

Booth interprets the clamp down as an attempt by Israel and the Egyptians to dissuade any outsiders trying to break the blockade around Gaza, controlled by Hamas militants. The message: come on in, but don't expect us to let you out.

I asked her if she'd sought help from Blair, who, after all, still has some stroke with the Israelis as Middle East peace envoy for the Quartet. It appears not. She replied: “If Tony Blair is talking about anything, it should be about lifting the crippling blockade around Gaza's 1.5 million people. I'm just a tiny part of the story right now.”

Booth's two young kids started school on Tuesday and she frets about how they'll handle their mother's absence. “When they ask: ‘Mummy when are you coming home?' I have to say ‘I don't know.' And that's a frightening answer for a child.”

Right now, says Booth, “I'm like all the other people in Gaza. I sit by the phone waiting for people I don't even know to decide on my fate.”

By Tim McGirk/Jerusalem