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Jewish Israeli detained without trial, in move usually reserved for Palestinians

February 11, 2020 at 12:24 pm

Masked Israeli settlers watch after Palestinian fields were set on fire in the village of Asira al-Qiblyia in the northern West Bank on June 2, 2010. According to Palestinian villagers, Jewish settlers from the nearby Yitzhar settlement set ablaze their olive and wheat field. Photo by Wagdi Eshtayah

Israeli authorities placed a 19-year-old Jewish Israeli under administrative detention yesterday, in a move usually reserved for Palestinians living under military occupation.

As reported by Haaretz, Eliya Ben-David “was released from custody earlier Monday morning and was not allowed to see a lawyer while in detention.”

“He is currently the only Jewish Israeli jailed without trial,” the paper noted.

Ben-David, a right-wing activist who lives in the northern town of Nof Hagalil, “hurled a rock at a Palestinian taxi driver in November 2019 near a West Bank settlement, wounding him moderately.”

According to Haaretz, “following a Shin Bet security service interrogation, it was decided to issue an administrative detention order against him due to the security risk he posed”, an order signed by Defence Minister Naftali Bennett and valid for a month.

An unnamed Israeli official told the paper that Ben-David is “violent and extreme”, and is suspected of a number of attacks against Palestinians.

The source added that the administrative detention order is a “pre-emptive measure, rather than punitive, which is employed only as a last resort”.

“The security situation in the West Bank is tense and the Israeli defence establishment is operating to prevent any sort of terror activity, which might inflame the tensions and claim lives.”

While Ben-David is the only Jewish Israeli jailed without charge, there are some 461 Palestinians held by Israeli authorities in administrative detention, according to prisoners’ rights group Addameer.

In 2017, the Shin Bet issued an administrative detention order against a Jewish Israeli “a day after the court ordered that he be released from arrest”, a case “considered unusual at the time”.

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