DM Katz Revokes Administrative Detention of Jewish Settlers

Photo Credit: Yonatan Sindel/Flash90

Newly appointed Defense Minister Israel Katz attends a Knesset plenum session, November 7, 2024.

In a meeting this week between Defense Minister Israel Katz and Shin Bet head Ronen Bar, the DM informed Bar of his decision to stop using administrative arrest warrants against Jewish settlers in Judea and Samaria and asked him to put in place alternative tools.

Administrative detention is an arrest made by the authority of an executive and not by a court. The arrest is not intended for investigation or trial nor to protect the detainee. Most of the time, administrative detention is done for security reasons, on the grounds that the detainee may endanger the security of the state sometime in the future.

In Israeli law, administrative detention gets its authority from the Defense (Emergency) Regulations of 1945 that have been in effect since the British Mandate rule. The past seventy years have seen 25 administrative detentions of Jews in Israel, out of which 19 were carried out in the year and a half of Defense Minister Yoav Gallant’s tenure. Katz’s predecessor launched a predatory campaign against the Jews of Judea and Samaria, against the very spirit of the coalition majority party Likud.

Defense Minister Katz on Friday issued this statement:

“In a reality where the Jewish settlements in Judea and Samaria are subject to serious Palestinian terrorist threats, with the support and backing of the Iranian axis of evil working to establish an eastern terrorist front against the State of Israel, and unjustified international sanctions are being taken against settlers and organizations in the settlement – it is inappropriate for the State of Israel to take such a severe step against settlers.

“If there is suspicion of committing criminal acts, the perpetrators can be brought to justice, and if not, there are other preventive measures that can be taken outside of administrative detention. I condemn any form of violence against Palestinians and people taking the law into their own hands and also appeal to the settlement leadership to take a similar public stance and express an unequivocal position on the matter.

“The IDF and other security and law enforcement agencies must be allowed to deal with Palestinian terrorism and violence and not take the law into their own hands.”

Following Katz’s announcement, several coalition ministers and MKs approached him with a request that he revoke the administrative detention warrants against eight settlers currently being held in custody.

“These warrants were signed with unbearable ease, out of political motives and under foreign pressure, in the midst of the war,” they wrote. “The proper treatment of the country’s citizens requires the understanding that the use of administrative detention, without a legal process, should be reserved only for very extreme cases — those that we know are the actions of murderous enemies among the haters of Israel. If there are still suspicions against those settlers, the police should have the honor of launching a criminal investigation as they do in any other criminal incident in the country.”

העצורים המנהליים מדברים:

– מה זה מעצר מנהלי?
– איך אפשר להתמודד עם זה?
– מעצר מנהלי זה ממש בכלא? אי אפשר לצאת?

כל זה, ועוד הרבה שאלות מעניינות ששאלו – העצורים המנהליים והמשפחות שלהם התיישבו מול המצלמות לספר הכל.

צפו בסרטון ושתפו!#אנחנו_לא_האויב pic.twitter.com/gRigKaXmCJ

— אריאל דנינו Ariel Danino (@ariel__danino) September 7, 2024

Minister of Finance and Adjunct Minister in the Defense Ministry Bezalel Smotrich issued the following statement on Friday:

“I congratulate my friend and partner, Minister of Defense Israel Katz, on his courageous and necessary decision to cancel the use of administrative arrest warrants against settlers in Judea and Samaria.

“In his decision, Minister Katz eliminated long-standing discrimination against settlers in Judea and Samaria and put an end to the injustice in which the settlers were second-class citizens with draconian and undemocratic measures being applied against them that trampled on their rights – measures that were not applied against any other population in the State of Israel except terrorists and dangerous enemies.

“The settlers are law-abiding citizens who oppose any type of violence or taking the law into their own hands, but to the extent that such unacceptable phenomena occur, God forbid, they should be handled by the police and the legal system following the procedures and rules of evidence of criminal law, just as would be done with any other citizen or population.”

MK Ahmed Tibi (Hadash) criticized Katz’s decision, saying that “this is a certificate of approval from the Minister of Defense for Jewish terrorism. Administrative detention for Palestinians only. More proof of the regime of Jewish supremacy.” Tibi attacked the government, saying that “later they will complain about the ‘antisemitism’ in The Hague.” According to him, this is a “government of terror supporters.”

MK Tibi’s greatest claim to fame was his work as an advisor to master terrorist Yasser Arafat, while Tibi was serving as a member of the Knesset.