On 20 June 2008, S.,* a Palestinian teenager, was on the roof of his house, which abuts the Israeli settlement of Avraham Avinu, after having retrieved water from a neighbor's roof. A soldier accused him of stealing money from the Israeli settlement of Avraham Avinu, and told him to come down to the entrance of his house, where a squad blindfolded and handcuffed him. His arrest struck onlookers as particularly abusive. An eyewitness, A.,* enacted the manhandling of S. to CPTer Kathleen Kern as she walked by a barbershop, where men were discussing the incident. Kern invited A. to the team's apartment where he called TIPH (Temporary International Presence in Hebron) to report what had happened.

After Kern and Kathie Uhler stopped at S.'s home and a checkpoint where soldiers had reportedly taken him, a young boy told the CPTers that the police were holding S. at the station near the Ibrahimi mosque, so A., the boy, Uhler and Kern walked over there, and spoke to a plainclothes officer, who told them that the police were investigating S. and would release him in an hour. However, he was obviously more interested in getting information on the different international groups working in Hebron, than in the case of S. Uhler, Kern, A. and the boy tried to return to their homes in the Old City, but Israeli Border police insisted that A. and the boy had to go about a quarter mile out of their way instead of a hundred yards to the gate of the Old City, so all four trooped around the extra distance.

As the group approached the entrance to the family's home in the Old City, they saw TIPH and the EAPPI (Ecumenical Accompaniment Programme in Palestine and Israel) talking to the people gathered. Before Uhler and Kern reached the group, S. came up behind the CPTers, smiling. The police had apparently released him from the police station near the Israeli settlement of Kiryat Arba before or around the same time Uhler and Kern had been at the police station near the mosque.

TIPH and the CPTers interviewed S. when he arrived at his home and ascertained that the police had kept S.'s ID (without which Palestinians are not allowed to leave their homes) and told him, "Go home and stay there for three days." If he went out, they told him, he would be detained for three months and have to pay a 5,000 shekel fine. They did not have him sign any document to that effect.

Because of their proximity to Avraham Avinu, S. and his family, like other families whose homes are next to settlements have had to deal with settler and soldier harassment for years. The EAPPI volunteer told Uhler and Kern that S.'s mother had not seemed particularly upset by the arrest. "It happens to us all the time," the mother said.

*Names have been changed for the protection of individuals.