1st Israeli jailed under anti-terror detention rules

Mordechai Meyer, suspected of “price tag” terror attacks in recent months, is the first Israeli arrested after the security cabinet passed new anti-terror rules against suspected Israeli terrorists earlier this week.

Meyer, 18, from the West Bank city of Maaleh Adumim, is being held for six months in “administrative detention” for “his involvement in violent activities and recent terror attacks,” Defense Minister Moshe Ya’alon’s office says in a statement.

Meyer is believed to have been involved in the June arson attack on the Church of the Multiplication on the shore of the Sea of Galilee.

The new detention measures allow the indefinite holding of suspects without trial, subject to the approval of the attorney general. Suspects can appeal to the High Court of Justice, which can review the state’s evidence against them but does not conduct full trials for the detainees.

The measure has been used against suspected Palestinian terrorists, but has only rarely been applied to Israeli citizens.

The use of the measure against Israelis was approved after an escalating bout of terror attacks believed to have been conducted by extremist Jews as part of the “price tag” campaign, including last Friday’s firebombing of a Palestinian home in the West Bank village of Duma that left one infant dead and three of his family members in serious condition.

— AP contributed