Netanyahu says he could okay administrative detentions to quell Lod violence

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu visits Lod, which has been the scene of major Jewish-Arab riots over the past few days, and says he’ll approve far-reaching measures to quell the violence, including deploying military forces or using the controversial measure known as administrative detention.

“We have no bigger threat now than these pogroms, and we have no choice but to restore law and order via determined use of force,” the premier tells reporters.

Administrative detention enables authorities to detain people for extended periods of time without leveling formal charges against them, in a practice decried by critics as undemocratic and abusive but defended by the security establishment as a necessary measure in cases where revealing the evidence would harm national security.