By Palestine Chronicle Staff  

“It is not appropriate for the State of Israel to take such a severe measure against the people of the settlements.”

Israel’s new Defense Minister Israel Katz has announced the cessation of the issuance of administrative detention orders for illegal Jewish settlers accused of attacking Palestinians in the occupied West Bank.

Such arrest warrants are rare, but Katz, known for his far-right views, is the first defense minister to refuse the issuing of such arrest orders for illegal settlers, reported the Anadolu news agency on Friday.

In a move supporting the terror settler attacks against Palestinians, Israeli Defense Minister Israel Katz has decided to halt the use of administrative detention against settlers in the occupied West Bank. pic.twitter.com/DN8UqWG9Dq

— Quds News Network (@QudsNen) November 22, 2024

“It is not appropriate for the State of Israel to take such a severe measure against the people of the settlements,” Katz said in a statement, according to the Times of Israel, since it was “a reality” in the West Bank that the settlers are “subject to serious Palestinian threats and unjustified international sanctions,” taken against them.

Meeting with Shin Bet

Katz met with the head of the Shin Bet security service, Ronen Bar, earlier this week informing him of his decision to stop issuing these orders against settlers in the West Bank and requested that alternative measures be considered, the statement noted, according to Anadolu.

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“If there is suspicion of criminal acts, the perpetrators can be tried, and if not, there are other preventive measures that can be taken instead of administrative detention,” he said, without specifying what those measures might be.

The practice, primarily deployed against Palestinians, allows for detention without charge for up to six months at a time, the Times reported, adding that “detentions can be renewed indefinitely while allowing military prosecutors to keep suspects from being able to see the evidence against them.”

Ben-Gvir, Smotrich Welcome Move

National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir, a far-right extremist, quickly welcomed the decision.

“His decision … is a correction of an injustice that has lasted many years and a justice for those who love the land,” said Ben-Gvir on X.

אני מברך את ידידי ושותפי, שר הביטחון ישראל כץ, על החלטה אמיצה ומתבקשת לבטל את השימוש בצווי מעצר מנהליים נגד מתיישבי יהודה ושומרון.

בהחלטתו ביטל השר כץ אפליה ארוכת שנים נגד מתיישבי יהודה ושומרון ושם קץ לעוול במסגרתו המתיישבים היו אזרחים סוג ב' והופעלו כלפיהם אמצעים דרקונים ולא…

— בצלאל סמוטריץ' (@bezalelsm) November 22, 2024

Meanwhile, Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich said Katz’s decision “abolished long-standing discrimination against the settlers” of the West Bank “and put an end to the injustice in which the settlers were second-class citizens and draconian and undemocratic measures were used against them…”

He added that these measures were not used “against against any other population in the State of Israel except terrorists and dangerous enemies.”

Smotrich claimed that the settlers were “law-abiding citizens who oppose any kind of violence or taking the law into their own hands…”

Western Sanctions

In recent months, several Western countries, including the US, the EU, and the UK, have imposed sanctions on illegal settlers and settler organizations in the occupied West Bank for committing crimes against Palestinians.

Tension has been running high in the West Bank due to Israel’s ongoing war on the Gaza Strip, which has killed over 44,000 people, mostly women and children, since October last year.

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Nearly 795 Palestinians have since been killed and over 6,400 others injured by Israeli army fire in the occupied territory, according to the Health Ministry.

In July, the International Court of Justice issued a landmark advisory opinion that declared Israel’s decades-long occupation of Palestinian land “illegal” and demanded the evacuation of all existing settlements in the West Bank and East Jerusalem.

(Anadolu, PC)