After completing six months in administrative detention in Eshel prison near Be’er Sheva, Meir Ettinger, grandson of the late Rabbi Meir Kahane, was issued an additional four months, by decree of Defense Minister Moshe Ya’alon, without an explanation. Ettinger and Jewish activist Evyatar Slonim had been placed in administrative detention—an old British Mandate “temporary” regulation which is being employed by the Israeli defense establishment to incarcerate security risks whose alleged crimes cannot be proven—have been incarcerated since early August. At the time the move was explained as being part of the investigation of the Duma village arson attack of July 31. But since then the Shabak has decided on another suspect in the case.
Ettinger and Slonim have been on a hunger strike for about two weeks, to protest their prison conditions, having been transferred to the security wing of Eshel prison near Be’er Sheva in early October, where they are surrounded by Palestinian detainees who are making their lives a daily living hell.
According to Hakol Hayehudi, Slonim is expected to be released soon. Last week, the hunger striking Ettinger collapsed in his cell and was treated by a prison doctor. According to Eran Schwartz, a spokesman for legal aid society Honenu, as of Monday at 1 PM, Ettinger was still on his hunger strike.
Israel’s security establishment is convinced that Ettinger is the leader of the “hill youth,” who have been accused of carrying out several terrorist acts, from “price tag” graffiti to arson. But the only evidence the Shabak has been able to present so far has been his personal blog on Hakol Hayehudi, last entry on August 4, where he dealt soberly with controversial issues of cultural identity and the Jewish-Arab conflict.
