Suspected far-right activist booted out of West Bank
Jerusalem resident handed warrant at yeshiva associated with price tag attacks, prohibited from leaving house at night
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Police sent a suspected Jerusalem far-right activist to house arrest Tuesday night as part of efforts to combat Jewish extremism.
Officers raided the Od Yosef Chai Yeshiva in the West Bank and delivered an administrative house arrest order to the suspect, who is 18, Israel Radio reported.
The youth was prohibited from leaving his house at night for three months and from traveling to the West Bank. He is also prohibited from speaking with 20 other suspected activists. On Tuesday, two West Bank youths suspected of extremist involvement were handed similar warrants
The yeshiva, which is located in the settlement of Yitzhar, is known for far-right incitement and for students’ alleged involvement in “price tag” attacks, in which Palestinian houses, religious buildings and property are vandalized.
The yeshiva’s head rabbi, Yitzhak Shapira, signed a petition over the weekend opposing administrative detentions and calling on the public to support those who received warrants, the religious news site Israel National News reported.
In 2010, Shapira was arrested for suspicion of involvement in the torching of a mosque in the northern West Bank Palestinian town Yasuf, although he was later released due to lack of evidence. He is also known for publishing inflammatory anti-Palestinian writing.
Tuesday’s house arrest order was the twenty-first such order issued since authorities began to crack down on Jewish extremists in the wake of the July killing of Sa’ad Dawabsha and his 18-month-old son, Ali, in a firebombing attack on their home in the Palestinian village of Duma.
The attack, coupled with a fatal stabbing spree by an extremist Jew at Jerusalem’s gay pride parade a day earlier, sparked an international and domestic outcry over Israel’s failure to come to grips with violence by Jewish extremists.
Defense Minister Moshe Ya’alon approved the use of detention without charges — known as administrative detention — and other means in an effort to track down the killers of the Dawabshas.
On Tuesday, two West Bank youths suspected of extremist involvement were handed similar warrants
Ya’alon said the use of administrative detention for a number of Jewish terror suspects has proved effective in preventing additional violence against Arabs by hardline Jews.
Times of Israel staff contributed to this report.
The Times of Israel Community.