NZ Christian Peacemaker Released By Israelis

Hebron CPTers released from custody

By Nicholas Klassen

HEBRON - At 10:15 pm November 4, Joe Carr (Kansas City, MO) and Christina Gibb (Dunedin, NZ) were released from Kiryat Arba police station with no charges. They had been arrested five hours earlier for taking notes on the number of Palestinians who are detained passing through the Beit Romano military checkpoint in the Old City of Hebron.

It appeared that the police were not too concerned about the incident and that they were simply acting on the wishes of the army.

Much of the impetus for the arrest came from a particularly zealous soldier who has taken issue with CPT's presence in the past. Nevertheless, Carr and Gibb were interrogated thoroughly at the police station in regards to their activity at the checkpoint. The police and army took specific exception to data collected about the number of soldiers present at the checkpoint at any given time. CPT intends to resume the checkpoint watch without noting soldier information since it was entirely peripheral to the main thrust of the project: recording the percentage of Palestinians that pass by Beit Romano checkpoint who are detained and looking out for human rights abuses.

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