The Jerusalem Magistrate Court in Jerusalem on Tuesday rejected a police request to extend the detention of a Jewish resident of Samaria, married and the father of a baby and ruled that he must be released from detention by Wednesday.
In response, minutes after the hearing, Defense Minister Benny Gantz signed an administrative detention arrest for 4 months against the man.
Administrative detention is a leftover from the British Mandate in Palestine, which is rarely used against Jews. This anti-democratic device allows the government to detain for practically unlimited periods individuals whose crimes it is unable to prove. The detention may be renewed at the whim of the defense minister who is not compelled to share with the detainee the accusations against him.
Very par for the course of the Lapid-Bennett-Gantz government that doesn’t place a particularly high value on democracy (MK Rothman: We’re Fed Up with You, Hypocrites).
The accused was arrested on Monday and was interrogated over his participation in protests against rampant Arab terrorism that’s being largely ignored by the IDF. On Tuesday, Magistrate Court Judge Daniel Mordechai Dembitz rejected a police request to detain the resident for four days, and extended his detention by only 24 hours, stressing in his decision that the man would likely be released on Wednesday, and that “it’s difficult to believe that the material presented would be sufficient to justify another extension of his detention.”
As mentioned above, immediately after the hearing, an administrative arrest warrant was issued against the man, signed by Defense Minister Benny Gantz. The detainee was represented by Honenu legal aid society attorney Assaf Gonen.
Honenu issued a statement saying: “The dying palpitations of the failed Defense Minister Gantz come in the form of delusional and extreme harassment of a Jewish resident, the father of a small baby. We hope that the government that is being formed these days will put an end to this madness and immediately release the man. Those who behave flaccidly in the face of Arab terrorism that exacts a heavy price of human life – show determination and feigned heroism against this truly heroic man. Disgraceful.”
