Right-wing activist Meir Ettinger released from detention after 10 months

By MICHAEL BACHNER

Jerusalem (TPS) – Meir Ettinger, a right-wing activist held in administrative detention since last August, was released from custody under heavy restrictions on Wednesday morning.

Meir Ettinger under arrest. (Photo by Ehud Amiton/TPS)

Under administrative orders, Ettinger will not be allowed to enter the West Bank for the next year and will also be forbidden from entering Jerusalem for six months. He will be under house arrest every night for the next three months and has been given a list of 92 people with whom he is not allowed to have contact.

Ettinger, grandson of the American-born Rabbi Meir Kahane who was murdered by a Palestinian assassin in New York in 1990, was taken into administrative detention for suspected involvement in the 2015 arson attack that killed three members of the Dawabsheh family in the Palestinian village of Duma, including the infant Ali Dawabsheh.

While he has yet to be charged with a crime, Ettinger has been held in detention by order of Defense Minister Moshe Yaalon for allegedly posing an active threat to public security.

Ettinger, 24, is at the top of the Shin-Bet’s (Israel Security Agency) list of most dangerous right-wing Jewish extremists. According to Shin Bet, Ettinger is the leader of “The Revolt” – a fringe religious group bent on creating war between Arabs and Jews and on leading the way to the ultimate destruction of the secular State of Israel.

Ettinger’s administrative detention had been extended by four months in February, which sparked community protests and an uproar by his family. Ettinger was denied a temporary release to attend his son’s circumcision on April 3.

“I am very happy that this lengthy period of Ettinger’s detention has come to an end,” said Ettinger’s lawyer, Yuval Zemer, after the announcement of Ettinger’s release. “Yet it is sad to find that the State of Israel in 2016 can detain a person for 10 months solely on the basis of his political views. While I welcome the correct decision to end his sentence, it has been made too late.”