District court accepted appeal submitted by Honenu – restrictive conditions placed on Gush Etzion hikers canceled

Wednesday, March 30, 2011, 12:22 A deliberation took place on the morning of Wednesday, March 30 at the Jerusalem district court on the appeal submitted by Honenu on the restrictive conditions placed on the hikers from Gush Etzion detained two months ago on suspicion of shooting at Arab rioters in Gush Etzion.
To reiterate, two months ago a group of hikers hiking on Friday near Bat Ayin was attacked by dozens of rioting Arabs. The hikers withdrew from the area as they fired into the air in self defense. A large number of police and army forces streamed into the area and detained approximately 20 hikers after the Arabs claimed that one of the rock-throwing rioters was killed.
Most of the hikers were released before Shabbat, however four of the hikers were held in remand for several days, and in the end were released after the courts ruled that they acted in self defense.
Restrictive conditions were placed on the hikers, including a half-year prohibition on hiking in Judea and Samaria without prearrangement.
Honenu attorney Adi Kedar submitted an appeal to the Jerusalem District Court in which he claimed that the restrictive conditions were inappropriate and illegal.
This morning (March 30) Judge Moshe Drori accepted the appeal, and in the process leveled criticism at the police.
Honenu attorney Kedar responded to the deliberation and stated that, “The court accepted the appeal after it pushed the police and directed them to a comprehensive ruling that ruled that the conditions prohibiting Jews from hiking in any place at any time were disproportional, to say nothing of illegal.”