Ben Gvir backs Katz plan for police in West Bank, demands detention of ‘anarchists’

National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir welcomes Defense Minister Israel Katz’s call to transfer civilian law enforcement authority in the West Bank from the IDF to the police.

“This is a significant step toward Israeli sovereignty” in the West Bank, the far-right Ben Gvir says in a statement, adding that control over Border Police in the West Bank should also be transferred from the IDF to the police.

As part of the transfer, Ben Gvir says “the authority for administrative detention and executive restrictions must be moved from the defense minister and the IDF to the national security minister and the Israel Police.”

“These authorities have not to this day been used against the anarchists and against elements from anti-Zionist movements opposed to the State of Israel,” Ben Gvir says. “It’s time to use these tools against the enemies of the state.”

Administrative detention is a highly controversial practice in which suspects are held in Israeli prison without trial or charge. Katz has boasted of ending the use of the practice for Jewish suspects, meaning it is limited to Palestinians.

The term “anarchists” is often used in the security forces to refer to left-wing activists from Israel or abroad who volunteer with Palestinians in the West Bank.

Katz had announced Friday — the sixth day of a settler siege in Qusra that has drawn international opprobrium — that he instructed the IDF to prepare to transfer West Bank civilian law enforcement authorities to the police, so that the IDF could focus on “fighting Palestinian terrorism” rather than chasing “youths on hilltops” — a euphemism for violent settlers.

Today, he said he gave the IDF two weeks to submit a plan for the transfer.

It was not clear what impact such a measure would have on the ground. Israel has never formally annexed the West Bank, and therefore, the IDF has been responsible for enforcement in the area. In addition, the IDF has always handed any suspects detained in the West Bank over to the police for interrogation or arrest.

Emanuel Fabian contributed to this report.