Meir Ettinger, a 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.

On the afternoon of Wednesday, 13 Adar Honenu attorney Adi Kedar, who is representing the soldier, 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. 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 requires 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.

On Sunday, 24 Adar a deliberation took place on the matter at the Supreme Court. The following morning the Supreme Court Justices announced their decision, according to which they reject the petition filed by Honenu attorney Adi Kedar, therefore the administrative orders issued by Central Command Major-General Nitzan Alon and Commander of the Home Front Command, Major-General Eyal Eisenberg will come into effect starting from the afternoon of Monday, 25 Adar. Kedar was not allowed access to the material presented by the State of Israel in which the State claims that there is evidence that Ettinger was involved in an attack on Arabs.

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. Ettinger has only several hours within which to find a place to live, since he is unable to stay with any of his close relatives, which is a very difficult task at best.

(YWN – Israel Desk, Jerusalem)