Honenu attorney Adi Keider on Monday made an urgent appeal to the District Court in Lod requesting that it order the release of the Jewish administrative detainees Ariel Danino and Amitzur Ben Yosef.
Last Wednesday, we reported that the IDF and the Shin Bet announced the release from Ofer security prison of 40 PA administrative detainees suspected of aiding terrorism – on the same day another PA Arab sprayed a gas station in Eli, in Binyamin, with bullets, killing two Israelis.
Last Tuesday, one day before the end of his administrative detention term expired, Ariel Danino’s detention was extended by Defense Minister Yoav Gallant. Danino, a father of four and resident of Kumi Uri in Yitzhar, was placed in administrative detention some three weeks after the start of the war after it was alleged that he managed a network of volunteers monitoring online information about Arab terrorist organizing.
Lod District Court President Ruth Lorch promptly ordered the state to respond to Honenu’s petition.
Everyone understood a week ago that the IDF and the Shin Bet were trying to make nice with the PA Arabs, on the eve of Ramadan. But the excuse they provided was not being good to the cousins, blaming instead space constraints. This played into Keidar’s hands, as he argued that Jewish detainees should be as entitled to concessions over space as any Arab.
Keidar cited recent statements by senior IDF commanders in Judea and Samaria about the sharp drop in “settler violence,” and wondered why this should be a good time to empty the prison of Arab security prisoners while keeping the Jews behind bars. That’s Jews who have not been accused nor convicted of any crime, mind you.
