Quilcene resident Kit Kittredge remained in Israeli custody Sunday after she and several other prisoners from the Freedom Wave Flotilla refused to sign a deportation order, according to Sallie Shawl, a friend of Kittredge.
The language of the order was such that had they signed it, they would have admitted they had entered Israel illegally and agreed that they would never return or try to break the Israeli blockade of the Palestinian territory, Shawl said.
“It is their position that they were kidnapped and taken into Israel,” she said.
International waters
The flotilla was in international waters, and the Israeli navy boarded the boats illegally, she said.
Shawl said she believed Kittredge, a member of the women’s peace group Code Pink, would be released and deported soon, even without signing the deportation order.
Kittredge is the only American among the 22 pro-Palestinian activists detained Friday while challenging Israel’s blockade of the Gaza Strip, fellow activists said.
The group was heading to Gaza on two boats, the Canadian-registered Tahrir and the Saoirse, from Ireland, to deliver medical supplies and letters of support to Palestinians, they said.
The group left Turkey on Wednesday, with Kittredge traveling on the Tahrir.
The Israeli military stopped the boats about 48 miles off the coast of Gaza, Shawl said.
Groups affiliated with the flotilla said they had not heard when she would be released, according to Shawl and Kittredge’s friend and fellow activist Linda Frank of Tacoma.
Three journalists and two Greek crew members were among those on the boats.
Some are leaving
The crew members were flown home Saturday, and three journalists from the U.S., Spain and Egypt were released and told to leave by Sunday, The Associated Press said.
Another journalist, Jihan Hafiz, with American Democracy Now, has not been recognized as a professional journalist by the Israelis, David Heap of Ontario, Canada, wrote from his jail cell in Israel.
“She is one of the people refusing to sign,” Shawl said.
In his writing, which was quoted in a Sunday news release from Freedom Wave Flotilla, Heap asked the Israelis recognize the professional status of Hafiz in accordance with her credentials from the U.S. government.
Heap also wrote that he has seen Kittredge since being taken into custody.
The State Department warned Saturday that Americans could face consequences under U.S. law for challenging the blockade, put in place in 2007 when Hamas took control of the territory, but did not specify what those consequences may be.
Heap wrote that he was being held cell 9, block 59 of Givon Prison, near Ramla in occupied Palestine.
“Although I was tasered during the assault on the Tahrir, and bruised during forcible removal dockside (I am limping slightly as a result) I am basically ok,” he wrote.
Four from the Tahrir are imprisoned, Heap said, along with 12 Irish protesters from the Saoirse.
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Reporter Arwyn Rice can be reached at 360-417-3535 or at arwyn.rice@peninsuladailynews.com.
