QUILCENE — Activist Kit Kittredge, detained by the Israeli navy last Friday, is most likely on her way to the United States and will land in New York this afternoon, according to her domestic partner.
Keith Meyer said Monday that he had not talked to Kittredge but was told that she had been put on a plane after four days in custody.
“This has been very hard; I’ve been waiting on pins and needles to hear from her,” Meyer said.
“I’ve gotten a lot of calls at 3 in the morning, but never talked to Kit.”
Meyer reported that Israeli officials said Kittredge would be deported by the end of the week, but that the process could be speeded if Meyer paid for a plane ticket.
Meyer agreed and was told he’d be contacted, but he heard secondhand that Kittredge was on her way home.
He said he did not know who paid for the ticket.
Kittredge’s arrival in Seattle is also uncertain as she might be asked to appear on TV while in New York, Meyer said.
Kittredge was one of a reported 27 people taken into custody after they were apprehended at sea Friday. Their stated purpose was to deliver food and supplies to occupied Gaza.
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, and had dubbed themselves “The Freedom Flotilla.”
Kittredge was one of two U.S. citizens in custody along Jihan Hafiz, a journalist from Democracy Now!, a national news program.
Sallie Shawl, who distributed news releases about the situation since it began, said Kittredge could have been freed earlier but had refused to sign a voluntary deportation agreement that waived her right to appear before a judge.
Kittredge and other detainees refused to sign because the wavier states that they came to Israel voluntarily and entered the country illegally.
The protesters state that the Israeli naval ships violently seized the Tahrir and Saoirse and forcibly transported the occupants to Israel.
“Kit didn’t want to sign the document because it wasn’t true,” Shawl said.
“They didn’t enter Israel legally. They were 48 miles out to sea and they were kidnapped.”
Shawl said the waiver stated the signatory would not attempt to cross a blockade again, a commitment that Kittredge — who has made several trips to Gaza — was unwilling to make.
A U.S. consul reportedly advised the detainees to sign the agreement.
Shawl said she and her sister bought Kittredge a $350 computer notebook to use on the trip but expected that the device known as a netbook had been tossed overboard.
“You don’t want to allow them to take your computer, not just because you don’t want them to have a good laptop but because of the information that could be on there,” Shawl said.
Shawl said that for the first 24 hours of their detention, none of the activists, crews or journalists was allowed to call a lawyer or family members.
On Sunday, a few were able to make one one-minute phone call.
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Jefferson County Reporter Charlie Bermant can be reached at 360-385-2335 or charlie.bermant@peninsuladailynews.com.
