New Israeli Defense Minister Israel Katz announced an end to administrative detention orders for Israeli settlers in the occupied West Bank settlers, in a new measure that is seen a practice of apartheid against Palestinian people, and a green light for Zionist settlers to attack the native people of Palestine.

While the practice is primarily deployed against Palestinian people in Israeli jails, it is also used against some Israelis, described as “extremist Jewish”. It sees individuals held without charge for up to six months at a time. The detentions can be renewed indefinitely while allowing military prosecutors to keep suspects from being able to see the evidence against them.

In a statement, Katz claimed that Israeli settlements in the West Bank are subject to so-called “serious Palestinian terror threats and unjustified international sanctions are taken against the settlers.”

“It is not appropriate for the State of Israel to take such a severe measure against the people of the settlements,” the Israeli DM added.

Katz met with Shin Bet chief Ronen Bar this week and told him that he had decided “to stop the use of administrative detention orders against Jewish settlers in Judea and Samaria, and asked him to put alternative tools in place,” his office said, referring to the Hebrew name of the West Bank.

The measure could be seen as a new Israeli attempt to permit settler violence against Palestinians in the occupied West Bank, which spiked since October 2023.

Israeli occupation authorities rarely arrest Jewish perpetrators in such attacks. Rights groups lament that convictions are even more unusual and that the vast majority of charges in these types of attacks are dropped.

Source: Israeli media