Hunger-striking Jewish extremist loses consciousness

A right-wing Israeli extremist who has been held without charges since August, and went on a hunger strike last week to protest his treatment, lost consciousness Wednesday. He was rushed to a medical facility in order to undergo emergency treatment, the Maariv news site reported.

Meir Ettinger, the grandson of the slain far-right mentor Rabbi Meir Kahane, was arrested on August 3, 2015. He has been on hunger strike for nine days. Eviatar Slonim, another Jewish extremist being held in administrative detention, joined the hunger strike on Monday.

Attorney General Yehuda Weinstein approved the order for six months of administrative detention issued by Defense Minister Moshe Ya’alon against Ettinger. The Lod District Court upheld the order in mid September.

Under administrative detention, an anti-terror measure more commonly used for Palestinian prisoners, one can be held for six months without being charged or tried. The order can be renewed indefinitely in six-month increments.

Israeli authorities say they believe Ettinger oversees a Jewish terrorist group. He was arrested for “involvement in violent activities and terrorist attacks that occurred recently, and his role as part of a Jewish terrorist group.” His arrest was initially linked to the firebombing of a home in the West Bank Palestinian village of Duma that left an infant and his parents dead. Two people, one of them a minor, have been indicted in connection with that attack.

Shin Bet officials have said Ettinger heads a movement that also was responsible for a June 2015 arson attack at the historic Church of the Multiplication of the Loaves and Fishes and seeks to bring down the government and replace it with a Jewish theocracy.

Ettinger was recently transferred to solitary confinement and has limited, monitored contact with his family.