The Founders
Ken O’Keefe
Ken O’Keefe was born in 1969, and has worked as an entrepreneur, marine conservationist, and Human Rights Activist. Born in California, he served in the United States Marine Corps in the 1991 Gulf War where he, along with hundreds of thousands of other military personnel, were given experimental drugs without consent, drugs later linked to Gulf War syndrome. O’Keefe also became aware of the hideous affects of Depleted Uranium which he was likely exposed to during that conflict. On March 1, 2001 he renounced his American citizenship in Vancouver, Canada. He now proudly holds Irish, Hawaiian and Palestinian citizenship. His love of the sea inspired him to found a scuba diving company that was mainly a marine conservation organization, called Deep Ecology in Hawaii. This company was responsible for the saving of dozens of endangered Green Sea Turtles and the formation of a legitimate Marine Sanctuary on the North Shore of Oahu. It was during this time that Ken became a Hawaiian national and served as a legislator within the Lawful Hawaiian Government. He has since authored two laws, one binding the Hawaiian Government to non-violence, the other outlawing WMD in Hawaii.
In 2004 he was a guest of peace organizations in Japan who raised sponsorship so that he could embark on a speaking tour on the subject of human rights and peace. In December 2002, Ken founded the Truth Justice Peace Human Shield Action to Iraq and in 2004, P10K, a mission to bring 1000 international observers to Palestine. Both of these direct actions were endorsed by Noam Chomsky and both acknowledge the huge disparity between the value of Western life and the lives of citizens across the globe. He thus joined the Free Gaza mission fully understanding the power of non-violent direct action and was honoured to be a Captain on the Free Gaza Mission and to pilot the SS Free Gaza as it arrived in Gaza Port on August 23rd, 2008.
Ken’s wife is Palestinian, born and raised in the UK. She is also among the many who have never visited their Palestinian homeland. On October 4th 2008 she gave birth to their baby boy and it is among Ken’s greatest desires to sail back to Gaza, aboard the UDHR with his wife and child.
Lauren Booth
Lauren Booth was born in London in 1967. She has been a journalist since the mid nineties and is well known as an outspoken commentator on issues as diverse as childhood vaccinations and the war in Iraq.
In 2005, she first visited the West Bank on a trip that was to change the course of her work. Witnessing first hand the hardships suffered on a daily basis by Palestinians she wrote a series of hard hitting articles about life in the region, also interviewing Mahmoud Abbas on the day of his first election. Returning to the region, Lauren visited Gaza where she was held at the Israeli Erez checkpoint for seven hours, later being subjected to a humiliating search and long interrogation in Tel Aviv. She has spoken on her experiences in Palestine for the Royal Geographical Society, Arab Media Watch and in several meetings at the House of Commons.
Lauren joined the Free Gaza mission in order to raise awareness of the suffering of families in the Gaza Strip. After staying behind when the two ships returned to Cyprus she was immediately refused exit from the enclave by Israel and Egypt. She spent a further three weeks visiting refugee camps and medical centres across Gaza making new reports for Press TV.
Lauren presents ‘In Focus’ on the Islam Channel and ‘Between The Headlines’ on Press TV.