The Israeli military arrested a human rights worker with the Christian Peacemaker Team in Hebron, in the southern part of the West Bank, on Saturday, and is now threatening the young woman with deportation. According to the Christian Peacemaker Team, Israeli authorities detained Kristin Anderson, a U.S. citizen working with Christian Peacemaker Teams in the South Hebron Hills, during a non-violent action in At-Tuwani neighborhood in the city of Hebron. The group reported that Israeli soldiers took Anderson's bag and passport, and police detained her when she stayed behind to retrieve them. They then took her to the Kiryat Arba' police station.
Kiryat Arba' is an Israeli settlement constructed in violation of international law on stolen Palestinian land in Hebron. The Jewish immigrants who live there are infamous for their frequent and brutal attacks on the Palestinian indigenous population of Hebron.
Israeli military police told Anderson's fellow volunteers that she would be taken to the Russian Compound in Jerusalem for a trial and possible deportation.
The group held the non-violent action on Saturday in response to four attacks perpetrated by Israeli settlers against Palestinian children in the last week as they walked to or from summer camp in At-Tuwani. During the action, about 300 Palestinian adults and children, as well as Israelis and internationals, marched from At-Tuwani to Tuba to protest the continuing violence and the expansion of the Jewish-only settlement outpost Havat Ma'on on stolen Palestinian land.
