Nobel laureate Maguire: UN should suspend Israel membership

Nobel Peace Prize laureate Mairead Maguire said Thursday the United Nations should suspend or revoke Israel's membership. Maguire said Israel should be punished for ignoring a series of United Nations resolutions over the years. Maguire won the 1976 peace prize for her work with Catholics and Protestants in Northern Ireland. She is visiting the Palestinian territories to protest Israel's blockade of the Gaza Strip. In October this year she arrived on a boat that sailed into the Gaza Strip carrying international protesters who wanted to bring attention to Israel's blockade of the Hamas-controlled territory. Israel virtually sealed off the territories after the Islamic militant Hamas took over there in 2007. The closure tightened two weeks ago in response to Hamas rocket fire on Israeli border communities. Maguire told a news conference Thursday that it's time for the international community to take action against Israel.