Israel announces end of administrative detention for occupied West Bank settlers
Israel’s Defence Ministry has said it will end the use of administrative detention for Israeli settlers in the occupied West Bank.
The controversial policy permits authorities to detain suspects without charge for up to six months. It is mainly used to detain Palestinians but has on occasion been used against Israelis suspected of carrying out violence against Palestinians.
Attacks by settlers on Palestinians and their properties have surged since the start of the war on Gaza.
In a statement, Israeli Defense Minister Israel Katz said it “is inappropriate” for Israel to employ administrative detention against settlers who “face severe Palestinian terror threats and unjustified international sanctions”.
He added that prosecution or “other preventive measures” would be used to deal with criminal acts in the West Bank.
Israeli right wing ‘hails’ government decision to halt administrative detention for settlers
This is a move the right wing in Israel has been pushing for since Netanyahu came back into office two years ago. They are hailing and celebrating it.
Administrative detention is already rarely used against Israeli settlers. When Israeli settlers do commit crimes against Palestinians, there are rarely charges, rarely follow-ups with Israeli authorities.
The practice is predominantly used for Palestinians in the occupied West Bank. It’s incredibly controversial. It allows the Israelis to essentially hold people in detention without charge, without trial, for up to six months. And those six months can be extended over and over again.
Throughout the last 13 months, rights groups say the number of people held under this policy has been the highest since 1967 – at least 10,000 people. And that is only Palestinians from the occupied West Bank and occupied East Jerusalem. There haven’t really been numbers kept for Gaza.
Unpacking Israel’s decision to end administrative detention for West Bank settlers
Israel’s decision to end administrative detention for settlers in the occupied West Bank is part of its long, continuing process of normalising the relationship between the state and settlements, according to an expert.
“The Israelis, and Netanyahu in particular, have been trying to bring the settlements under the normal law of Israel, ie, removing them from under the governance [of] the military occupation,” Sultan Barakat, a professor of public policy at Qatar’s Hamad Bin Khalifa University told Al Jazeera.
This “normalisation” process could eventually lead to the annexation of the occupied West Bank, the professor said.
The decision may have been “retaliation against the Palestinians and the rest of the world to show them who really holds power on the ground”, following the issuing of the ICC arrest warrants yesterday, Barakat said.
