MARK McLAUGHLIN
Evening News (Edinburgh)
June 3, 2010, Thursday
AN EDINBURGH activist seized in the Gaza aid flotilla is in Turkey today attending the funerals of the nine people who were massacred by Israeli troops.
Friends said Theresa McDermott called her partner Jim Burns from the airport in Istanbul yesterday to tell him she was safe.
Free Gaza Scotland co-ordinator Carl Abernethy said: "We had expected her home today but she said she's going to stay for the funerals of the nine people who were killed, which are expected to take place today.
"Although we do not yet know the identities of the nine people who were killed, they are likely to be Muslim and custom dictates that they are buried on the day of death or at the nearest possible opportunity.
"We expect her to fly home after that."
The IHH charity says they are having difficulty identifying five of the bodies. Four of them have been officially confirmed to be Turks.
There were unfounded fears that Ms McDermott had joined the MV Rachel Corrie, the Irish boat that was due to enter Gazan waters this morning.
Israel has said it will not bow to international pressure to let the boat through the blockade.
Mr Abernethy said: "I've just heard that the MV Rachel Corrie is heading for Gaza now and has formed a another convoy with three ships from Malaysia carrying humanitarian aid."
News that Ms McDermott is safe and well signals the end of a tense few days for friends who feared for her safety when the nine activists were killed by Israeli troops on the Gaza aid flotilla on Monday.
The boat she was travelling on, the Challenger 2, was taken without a fight and Ms McDermott was taken to Beersheeba Prison in Israel pending deportation.
One of the first activists to make it back from Israel, Hasan Nowarah from Bearsden, said he believed Ms McDermott, a postal worker from Pilrig, had been badly beaten up.
However, Ms McDermott's sister Winnie Chambers said she did not appear to be in any distress when she phoned her partner on Tuesday.
She said: "Her partner sent an e-mail round everyone yesterday saying that she was fine."
Free Gaza organisers in Cyprus will also be relieved to hear that Ms McDermott was safe, after their lawyer failed to track her down in the prison amid fears she had been hospitalised.
Spokeswoman Greta Berlin said Ms McDermott had been resisting deportation in solidarity with four Palestinian and Israeli nationals.
Israel today dropped plans to prosecute the activists to limit diplomatic damage.
Meanwhile, it has been claimed that IHH had "clear" links to terror groups.
However, IHH denies ties to radical groups and it is not among 45 groups listed as terrorists by the US.
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