Exempting violent settlers from detention

Israel’s Defence Minister Israel Katz has announced he will no longer apply detention without trial to Jewish settlers who are accused of attacking Palestinians.

Israel will continue to use administrative detention against Palestinians, creating a difference in legal practice which has been sharply criticised inside and outside the country.

Whether the regulation will hold may depend on another issue dividing Israel and the West – the attack on judicial independence.

Legal experts say Israel’s High Court may overturn Katz’s decision to apply administrative detention in a discriminatory way.

Professor Barak Medina of the Hebrew University of Jerusalem told Haaretz that administrative detention could only be used under Israeli law when there is information that a suspect is about to harm others to prevent them from carrying out their plans.

"The decision over whether to arrest a person needs to be based only on the principle of the assessment of the danger that he personally poses," Medina said.

"[Katz] is not authorized to decide in advance that in any case involving someone who is a Jewish citizen of Israel, the authority won't be applied, even if there is no other legal way to prevent the danger, while the authority will continue to be applied toward Palestinians. That's an explicit declaration of a discriminatory policy, the results of which are liable to involve the illegality of all administrative detentions – of Palestinians too – since it's evidence that the state is resorting to extraneous considerations in its application of that authority."

Administrative detention is widely used by Israeli authorities against Palestinians suspected of terrorism in the West Bank, on the grounds that it protects the public.

In September, the most recent month for which the Israel Prison Service released data, around 40 Arab citizens and seven Jewish individuals were held under administrative detention. Approximately 3,400 West Bank Palestinians are imprisoned in Israel without trial.

Administrative detentions against a handful of Jewish extremists have been virtually the only step Israeli authorities have taken to reign in settler violence, which is now happening almost daily. Arrests are rare.

Aid agencies say there were more than 1,000 incidents between October 7, 2023, and July 2024. These include such rampages in Huwara and Umm Safa, an attack on four Arab women who took a wrong turn and ended up in Givat Ronen, and an attack on a school in Mu'arrajat.

The failure of Israeli authorities to clamp down on the phenomenon has led the US and other Western countries to begin issuing sanctions against extremist settler individuals and entities earlier this year.

In April both the US and the European Union imposed sanctions on settlers for the first time, and in July Australia issued sanctions against Hilltop Youth and seven individuals implicated in settler violence. On November 18, the US imposed sanctions on the Amana organisation, a cornerstone of the settlement movement.

The Biden administration has already expressed Katz's removal of administrative detention for settlers but that administration is a lame duck and the election of Donald Trump may have emboldened the Israeli government to introduce a discriminatory regulation.

Hagar Shehaz writes in Haaretz that the contradiction of the administrative detention move and the US sanctions exposes a growing rift between Israel and its allies.

“These decisions highlight a critical turning point in the relationship between settlers, the Israeli government, Palestinians and the international community. As the West adopts a stricter stance against the settlement enterprise, a potential shift in the global order looms under the leadership of President-elect Donald Trump. Meanwhile, Israel is governed by its most right-wing and pro-settlement administration to date.”

In addition to attacking Palestinians, the settlers are presenting an increasing threat to the Israel Defence Forces. The day after Katz’s announcement was made, several dozen Jewish extremists in Hebron for an annual pilgrimage tried to attack the head of the IDF Central Command Maj. Gen. Avi Bluth. Five suspects were arrested by police after they chased Bluth and the soldiers accompanying him, calling the IDF commander a “traitor”.

READ MORE

West Bank settlers, Israeli government and international community at a critical turning point (Haaretz)

Austin told Katz he was concerned over end to administrative detention for settlers, US official says (Times of Israel)

'Illegal': Experts blast Israeli decision to stop using detention without trial for Jewish settlers (Haaretz)

Several dozen Jewish extremists in Hebron try to attack IDF’s top West Bank commander (Times of Israel)