Administrative detainee to court: “Allow me to attend my son’s brit milah”

Friday, April 1, 2016, 14:54 On Thursday, March 31, Honenu Attorney Sima Kochav assisted administrative detainee Meir Ettinger in filing an urgent petition with the Be’er Sheva District Court, requesting that the Prison Service be ordered to allow him leave for several hours to attend the brit milah of his firstborn son on Monday, April 4. The court scheduled a deliberation on the matter for 10:00 A.M. on Sunday, April 3.
Ettinger has been under administrative detention since early August 2015 and has been held in solitary since October 7, 2015. Defense Minister Moshe Ya’alon signed the order for the administrative detention, which was authorized on September 20, 2015 by the Lod District Court. At the end of the first period of administrative detention, following the recommendation of the Jewish Department of the ISA, Yaalon signed a new four-month order extending the administrative detention. On February 23, 2016 Central District Court Judge Avraham Tal approved the order.
On the morning of Friday, April 1, Honenu Attorney Sima Kochav stated that, “We filed an urgent petition with the [Be’er Sheva] District Court to order the Prison Service to allow Ettinger to participate in the brit milah of his firstborn son. There is no need to add any words on the importance of the brit milah to the Jewish People. An administrative detainee also has rights and I sincerely hope that the court will accept the petition and that Ettinger will celebrate the brit milah as it should be celebrated.”
Ettinger is being held in solitary in a separate wing and is permitted to speak by telephone to only some of his closest relatives. On January 18 Ettinger went on a 17-day hunger strike in protest of his remand conditions.