At site of Ramle blast, Ben Gvir blames AG for crime wave, advocates use of administrative detention

Speaking from the scene of the car explosion in Ramle, National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir appears to blame Attorney General Gali Baharav Miara for the ongoing wave of crime in Israel, claiming that she has denied his request to use administrative detention against criminal offenders.

“The attorney general refused my request to hold criminals in administrative detention,” he tells reporters. “If we could go in tonight and arrest all the criminal families, all the criminals, that would change the situation.”

He claims that the police “know exactly who they are” and that he has given the attorney general a list of people he believes should be held in detention without trial.

“Administrative detention must be used against the crime families,” he reiterates.

Administrative detention is a controversial tool whereby Palestinian terror suspects and, more rarely, Jewish terror suspects, are detained without charge or trial.

The tool is typically used when authorities have intelligence tying a suspect to a crime but do not have enough evidence for charges to stand up in a court of law.

Critics say the policy denies prisoners due process, and human rights organizations have warned that it is a breach of civil rights.

Ben Gvir’s fellow coalition members have in the past accused him of failing to curb violence in the Arab Israeli community.