QUILCENE — Activist Kit Kittredge was happy to be home Wednesday after spending four days detained in Israel, but she isn’t staying put for long.
Kittredge, 53, was resting in her home in Quilcene after arriving in Seattle on Tuesday night and making plans to travel to Vancouver, B.C., this weekend to participate in the World Peace Forum.
“I want to do some writing, some speaking, more educational things,” she said.
“It’s important that people know about what the Israelis are doing,” she said.
“They are a rogue government.”
Last Friday, Kittredge was one of 27 activists on a “Freedom Flotilla” when they were stopped by the Israeli navy and taken to prison.
The group was heading to Gaza on two boats, the Canadian-registered MV Tahrir and the MV Saoirse from Ireland, to deliver medical supplies and letters of support to Palestinians, they said.
Kittredge, who was aboard the Tahrir, was one of two U.S. citizens in custody along with Jihan Hafiz, a journalist from Democracy Now!, a national news program.
Kittredge called the arrest “a kidnapping,” saying that the boats were 48 miles off the coastline and not in Israeli waters.
She was subsequently imprisoned and told that she would be released if she signed a declaration that she entered Israel illegally and that she would not attempt to visit Gaza again.
“They were playing by their own rules and were not following international law,” Kittredge said.
“They had the keys and did what they wanted,” she said.
“At one point, we were locked up for 21 hours and weren’t let out of our cells.
“They didn’t allow us a phone call; they didn’t even tell us what the charges were.”
Kittredge — who has been a member of Code Pink, an antiwar group, for six years and who has visited Gaza five times since 2008 — said that though she had expected the flotilla to be stopped and not allowed to reach its destination, the point of the journey was to bring world attention to the plight of Palestinians in Gaza.
She didn’t sign the declaration because it was “a lie.”
She also didn’t believe her signature would lead to her release.
“They told us that if we signed the paper, we’d be released right away, but some people signed, and they were still there after four days,” she said.
“It gave me a flavor of what Palestinians have had to deal with day in, day out for years.”
Kittredge said U.S. embassy personnel advised her to sign the declaration but had no guarantees.
“They told me I should sign but said they were not in charge and that Israel called the shots,” she said.
Eventually, despite the fact she didn’t sign the declaration, the Israelis deported her.
Kittredge paid her own airfare home, even though it was her understanding that the deporting country is liable for the outgoing fare.
“I would have stayed a few extra days and made them pay my airfare if it had brought more attention to the situation,” she said.
“But the news outlets are treating it like it’s passe. They don’t really care. They aren’t paying attention anymore.”
While imprisoned and uncomfortable, Kittredge still felt safe.
“I was depending on my ‘ground crew’ back home to keep it in the public eye,” she said.
“I am an American citizen, so there were a lot of people on the outside looking out for me, but Palestinians don’t have that privilege.”
One member of her “ground crew” was her domestic partner, Keith Meyer, who picked her up at Seattle-Tacoma International Airport when she was released on short notice.
In Quilcene, Kittredge works as a massage therapist and is also a volunteer firefighter and emergency medical technician with the Quilcene Fire Department.
Kittredge said her up-close look at Israel made her grateful for the absence of military conscription in the United States.
“I am so glad that we don’t make our young people spend two years in the military,” she said.
“It has the result of indoctrinating propaganda into these young people’s heads.”
Kittredge’s laptop and cellphone were confiscated by the Israelis, she said.
She said it was uncertain whether the flotilla ships would be returned to their owners.
The journey was the second time she had joined a flotilla headed for Gaza.
The first one was stopped also.
“We need to make sure our money and our energy is well-spent,” Kittredge said.
“It should be all about education.
“We don’t want to keep losing boats.”
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Jefferson County Reporter Charlie Bermant can be reached at 360-385-2335 or at charlie.bermant@peninsuladailynews.com.
