JERUSALEM
In a precedent, Israel on Tuesday night ordered that a Jewish extremist accused of carrying out recent acts of violence be placed in “administrative detention” – a punishment until now reserved for Palestinian prisoners.
“[Israeli Defense Minister] Moshe Yaalon ordered six months of administrative detention for radical [Jewish settler] Meir Mordechai, 18, who is suspected of carrying out a terrorist attack in June on a historical church in Israel,” Israeli daily Yedioth Ahronoth reported on Wednesday.
Israel’s policy of administrative detention allows authorities to hold suspects for renewable six-month periods without trial.
“A second suspect, Aviatar Slonim, was arrested due to his membership in a radical Jewish organization,” the newspaper reported.
The two arrests come one day after the arrest of another Jewish extremist, Meir Ettinger, 24, who had been wanted by Shin Bet, Israel’s internal security agency.
The spate of arrests targeting Jewish extremists comes in the wake of an arson attack last week in a West Bank village in which an 18-month-old Palestinian baby was burned to death.
None of the three recently-arrested Jewish extremists, however, has been accused of involvement in last week’s deadly attack.
