Meir Ettinger, 23, a married resident of Givat Ronen, a hilltop community in the Shomron, was detained on Tuesday, 12 Adar by police detectives who served him with administrative orders stating that he will be banned from entering Yehuda, Shomron and Jerusalem and will be confined to house arrest at night. One of the orders signed by IDF Central Command Major-General Nitzan Alon states that Ettinger will be banned from Yehuda and Shomron for one year.
Another order signed by the Commander of the Home Front Command, Major-General Eyal Eisenberg states that Ettinger will be banned for half a year from Jerusalem, under house arrest at night for three months and prohibited from contacting six of his friends for six months.
Ettinger’s parents, and his wife’s parents, live in Jerusalem and the Binyamin region, areas which Ettinger is forbidden from entering according to the orders which were signed several days previously and are already in effect.
Consequently, on the afternoon of Wednesday, March 4 Honenu attorney Adi Kedar presented an urgent request to the major-generals who signed the orders to postpone the starting date of the orders and also filed an urgent petition with the Israeli Supreme Court.
“This conduct is inappropriate and constitutes a decree which is impossible to keep, and it is doubtful that [the major-generals] themselves are aware of the manner in which it will be carried out,” wrote Kedar and stressed that the police waited several days before giving the orders to Ettinger, which indicates that Ettinger is apparently not as dangerous as the security system claims. “We see with our own eyes that the orders were signed several days ago and the [major-generals] were in no hurry to have the orders carried out. Under these circumstances no damage will be done and there will be no danger to the area if the carrying out of the orders is postponed in order to allow the petitioner to get his things in a proper order in light of the decree which befell him,” added Kedar.
Kedar demanded that Ettinger be allowed at least seven days to arrange a place to stay and also demanded that he be given the right to a hearing.
Later the same afternoon the Supreme Court issued a temporary injunction ordering that the State justify by 12:00 the following day why it will not allow Meir Ettinger several days to find a place to stay. The injunction orders that the administrative orders be frozen for 24 hours until the Supreme Court makes an additional decision. In the meantime Ettinger will be able to continue to stay in Yehuda and Shomron.
Honenu harshly criticized the orders. “We denounce the orders, which are unusually severe. The severity of the orders, which constitute an almost unprecedented act on the part of the IDF and the ISA (Israel Security Agency – Shin Bet), is indicative of hysteria. The orders are being used particularly against Jewish residents of Yehuda and Shomron, and not against rioting Arabs: once again we are witness to the security system forgetting who the enemy is and who is on their side.
“In addition to the justified criticism of the orders, on a practical level where is Ettinger supposed to go within several hours? He has been banned from his home and those of his family. Do the ISA and the IDF expect him to evaporate into thin air?”
(YWN – Israel Desk, Jerusalem – Photo credit: Zachariah, Rabbis for Human Rights)
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One Response
He should stop whining. In most Middle Eastern countries they would have shot him (a proven method of silencing those whose criticism annoys the regime). If he wants things like civil liberties and freedom of expression, he picked the wrong neighborhood.