Far-right activist Ettinger released after 10 months administrative detention
Ettinger is seen as one of the leading extreme right figures in Israel.
By BEN HARTMANUpdated: JUNE 2, 2016 00:38Police arrest Meir Ettinger(photo credit: TAZPIT)
Jewish extremist Meir Ettinger was released on Wednesday after 10 months in administrative detention.He and two other far-right activists – Evyatar Slonim and Mordechai Meir – were arrested in August as part of a crackdown on Jewish extremists following the fatal torching of a Palestinian family’s home in Duma in the West Bank.Slonim and Meir were released in February.Last month the Shin Bet (Israel Security Agency) issued a statement saying that Ettinger’s detention was set to expire on June 1, and that it would not seek to renew it. The agency added that it would put other limits on him in order to reduce “the danger he presents at this time.”According to a spokesman for Honenu, the right-wing organization that has provided legal assistance for Ettinger, he is currently banned from the West Bank and Jerusalem, and will have to check in every night at a specific court-approved residence.He is also banned from contacting 92 people whose names were collected by police and the Shin Bet.The release of Ettinger was carried out following the second renewal of his detention, and taking into account the balance between security concerns and civil liberties.Ettinger is seen as one of the leading extreme-right figures in Israel, and his arrest and administrative detention were part of security forces’ efforts to combat “price-tag” attacks and violent Jewish extremists in the wake of the Duma attack.Though at any given point hundreds of Palestinians are in administrative detention for terrorism-related allegations, the measure – an indefinite detention without charge – had not been used against Jews for years, until Ettinger’s detention.