By Janhabi Nandy
As I’m writing this from my hotel room, Mairead is sitting in a government detention room – it’s been almost 24 hours since she landed in Israel and was told she cannot enter to join our delegation. Talking to Ann Patterson, Mairead’s colleague and a delegate, she said she was disappointed that once again the Israeli government is frightened by people who come not to broker war but to talk peace. And what that means to Mairead is to listen to people, so that people have a voice – because being heard, connecting person to person, is such an important part of peace building. Ann also reminded me that Mairead wants us to go ahead as planned so that the other delegates can bear witness to the struggles, creativity, and hard work of peaceful activists here, and bring the world’s attention to their strategies for change.