Defense Ministry extends administrative of ultra-nationalist Meir Ettinger
Ettinger and Evyatar Slonim, two Jewish settler activists currently in administrative detention have been hunger striking recently to protest their treatment.
By YONAH JEREMY BOBUpdated: FEBRUARY 1, 2016 18:35Meir Ettinger attends a remand hearing at the Magistrate’s Court in Nazareth.(photo credit: AMMAR AWAD / REUTERS)
Defense Minister Moshe Ya'alon extended the administrative detention of Meir Ettinger by four months on Monday, security sources confirmed.Ettinger and Evyatar Slonim, two Jewish settler activists currently in administrative detention have been hunger striking recently to protest their treatment leading up to Ya'alon's decision and an anticipated court challenge, though apparently to no avail so far.Slonim, Ettinger and a third activist, Mordechai Meir, who was released on January 3, were arrested in August following the infamous Duma terrorist arson in which most of a Palestinian family was burned to death.In mid-August, Defense Minister Moshe Ya’alon, with the legal approval of Attorney-General Yehuda Weinstein, took the extremely unusual measure of placing all three in administrative detention, with the Lod District Court in September upholding the order for six months, until at least February.Although hundreds of Palestinians can find themselves in administrative detention for terrorism-related allegations at any given time, it has been years since the measure was used against Jews.Yaakov Lappin contributed to this report.