Court nixes general’s appeal to keep restrictions on settler accused of lurid attack

The Jerusalem District Court on Sunday rejected an IDF general’s appeal that sought to prevent Tal Yinon Dardik, a suspect in a shocking attack on Palestinians in March, from serving house arrest in his illegal outpost in the West Bank.

The court found that IDF Central Command chief Maj. Gen. Avi Bluth’s June 9 administrative home detention order against Dardik was “justified, proportionate and reasonable,” and that Dardik was evidently “dangerous to the security of the region and therefore must be under house arrest.”

However, the court upheld a military tribunal’s ruling that the terms of Dardik’s house arrest at the home of his mother-in-law, in the central West Bank settlement of Adei Ad, were untenable because she did not want him in the house.

Dardik has insisted that any house arrest be served at his home at the unauthorized farming outpost of Kfar Tarfon in the West Bank’s Area B — closer to the site of the March attack on Khirbet Humsa — but Bluth didn’t want to let him go back there.

The settler was put in a prison cell in early July after repeatedly violating the terms of his detention, the court said. Several right-wing politicians have called for his release, and he has since gone on a hunger strike, according to the Honenu legal aid organization, which represents suspects in cases of Jewish extremism.

The court gave the IDF until 11 a.m. Tuesday to comply with the ruling, though it was unclear where precisely the ruling left Dardik. According to Honenu, Dardik’s lawyer Moshe Polski is seeking the suspect’s release from prison.

Bluth and the Jerusalem District Prosecutor’s Office had appealed to the District Court after the IDF’s West Bank military appeals court on July 26 accepted Dardik’s argument about the impracticality of the detention order.

The order had cited Dardik’s alleged part in extremist violence, including in the northern West Bank village of Khirbet Humsa on March 13, when settlers reportedly bound Palestinians of all ages, stripped a man, zip-tied his genitals and paraded him around the village. Dardik denies taking part in the attack.

After the military tribunal accepted Dardik’s appeal, Defense Minister Israel Katz ordered officials not to renew his detention, and called on the military to find an alternative solution that would let Dardik out of jail without posing a threat. Katz also visited Dardik in his prison cell last month, according to Hebrew media.

Amid right-wing anger at Bluth for seeking to extend the restrictions on Dardik, Katz vowed on a pro-government TV talk show last week to replace the general. Katz’s announcement sparked an outcry, with critics accusing the defense minister of pre-election meddling in IDF appointments.

He backtracked after IDF Chief of Staff Lt. Gen Eyal Zamir said Bluth would remain Central Command chief.

Settler violence has mounted in recent years, with near-daily, sometimes deadly attacks taking place throughout the West Bank, but few suspects arrested and charged. Critics accuse the government of condoning or even encouraging the attacks.

Shin Bet figures from earlier this year found that three times more Palestinians were victims of nationalist attacks in the West Bank than Jews.

The military recorded 867 incidents of nationalist crime and settler violence in 2025, up from 682 incidents in 2024.