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Wednesday, July 3, 2024
Knesset advances bill seen aimed at barring administrative detention against Jewish suspects
Add ToI as a Preferred Source on GoogleSam Sokol is a former political correspondent at The Times of Israel. He was previously a reporter for the Jerusalem Post, Jewish Telegraphic Agency and Haaretz. He is the author of "Putin’s Hybrid War and the Jews"
A bill limiting law enforcement’s power to detain Israelis passes a preliminary reading 54-51 in the Knesset plenum on Wednesday.
The government-backed legislation, which was proposed by Religious Zionism MK Simcha Rothman, would ban the use of administrative detention or administrative restraining orders against Israeli citizens, unless they are members of a certain list of terror groupsץ It would still be available as a tool to hold West Bank Palestinian suspects.
It is largely seen as a far-right effort aimed at preventing the government from using the tool against Jewish terror suspects, leading to accusations of discrimination from rights groups.
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.
To become law, the bill still needs to pass through committee and three additional readings in the plenum.
The Times of Israel Community.