Written by JERUSALEM (CNN) — Former U.S. Rep. Cynthia McKinney — who was aboard a ship the Israeli navy intercepted this week — is in a detention center and will be returned to the United States, the U.S. Embassy said.
McKinney was among those on a ship that the Israeli Defense Forces said violated an Israeli blockade and crossed into Gazan waters on Tuesday.
The Israeli navy gained control of the ship and took McKinney and about 20 people into custody, said the Free Gaza Movement, a human rights group that sent the ship.
The group said the ship, which it calls Spirit of Humanity, was carrying humanitarian aid to Gaza.
McKinney served six terms in the House of Representatives as a Democrat from Georgia and was the Green Party’s 2008 presidential nominee.
The ex-lawmaker is in the Givon immigration detention center in the central Israeli city of Ramle, the U.S. Embassy said.
She has been given deportation papers but has refused to sign them, the embassy said.
