Settler put in administrative detention on suspicion of posing threat to national security
Jeremy Sharon is The Times of Israel’s legal affairs and settlements reporter
An Israeli settler is put on administrative detention on the orders of Defense Minister Yoav Gallant, the third such order against a settler suspected of posing a threat to national or public security since the October 7 atrocities and the beginning of the war against Hamas.
The individual, named by settler activists on social media as Tal Yinon Dardick, is a farmer from an illegal outpost farm in the central West Bank, northeast of Jerusalem and close to the Kochav Hashahar settlement. He was arrested two days ago.
The order will see the man held in administrative detention for four months until April 2.
An attorney for the Honenu legal aid organization which provides legal representation to ultra-nationalist activists and criminal suspects claims the detention order was approved by Gallant due to “external pressure on the State of Israel,” and claims that the evidence against Honenu’s client was “problematic.”
National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir, the leader of the ultranationalist Otzma Yehudit party, posts on X a picture of the administrative detention order signed by Gallant, adding: “Someone has got confused and forgot who is the enemy and who is the beloved.”
Violence by extremist settlers against Palestinians in the West Bank has spiked dramatically since Oct. 7, with 242 incidents of assault and harassment in over 80 towns and communities.
As a result, a thousand Palestinians have left their homes in 15 communities in Area C of the West Bank, where Israel has full security and civilian control.
Gallant issues his own statement following Ben Gvir’s post, saying, “Anyone taking the law into their own hands interferes with the security services and harms the war effort.”
