Israeli Press
Court bars settler suspect from the West Bank after Katz backed him
Graphic: Times of Palestine
Original Reporting
An Israeli court ended the house arrest of Tal Yinon Dardik, a settler held under an administrative order over an attack on Palestinians in March, and the army replaced it with an order removing him from the occupied West Bank except for Modiin Illit, the Israeli news site Ynet reported on Monday.
Dardik was never charged. Prosecutors judged the criminal evidence insufficient, so the head of Central Command, Major General Avi Bloth, signed a six-month supervision order instead, confining him to his mother-in-law's home. She refused to take him, and he was held in Jerusalem's Russian Compound.
The Jerusalem District Court ruled on Sunday that the order was "justified, proportionate and reasonable" but unworkable in that form, and gave Bloth 48 hours to set new terms. Under them Dardik reports to a police station twice a week and may ask for an electronic tag to ease the restrictions further.
Administrative orders of this kind have been used for years against Palestinians, who are held without charge for renewable six-month terms. The difference this case records is who intervened.
The defence minister, Israel Katz, publicly opposed the order against Dardik and met him. Katz then announced Bloth's successor during a live broadcast, and military sources told Ynet they are unsure what message that sends to officers weighing the next such order.
For Palestinians in the villages around Kochav HaShahar and Modiin Illit, the practical outcome is one man moved and no charge filed.
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