Major-General Bluth; Photo credit: Oren Ben Hakoon/Flash90
Thursday, June 5, 2025, 9:49 A recently engaged 19-year old Yehuda and Shomron resident is currently under a six-month administrative restraining order banning him from entering those regions. Honenu Attorney Adi Keidar sent a letter to the GOC of the Central Command, Major-General Avi Bluth on behalf of the resident requesting permission for him to visit his parents’ home in the Shomron with his fiancée:
“Last week, my client got engaged. The couple would like to visit my client’s parents together in honor of their engagement.” The letter specified the date of the desired visit, the exact hours, and the route that the resident would travel. Nonetheless, the request was denied: “After taking into account all of the considerations, he [Major-General Bluth] rejected your request due to concern for the security of the region.”
The resident wondered how the visit could pose such a danger: “The GOC of the Central Command and the GSS are preventing my fiancée and me from meeting with my parents and my family. I do not think that a young couple about to get married meeting with parents and close family is something that endangers the security of the region. I call for the immediate end of administrative orders, and despite the continued persecution, they will not break me. This is what I believe in, and I will continue with all my strength.”
Attorney Keidar added, “The GOC’s decision, which has the complete backing of the General Security Service, to deny a routine meeting between a Yehuda and Shomron resident, his fiancée, and his parents, is no less than cruelty for cruelty’s sake. Another limit has been crossed in the prolonged harassment by the army and the GSS of pioneer youths. We hoped, perhaps naively, that in light of public criticism, Major-General Bluth would come to his senses and retract the decision. Unfortunately, we erred.
“This matter is not an isolated incident, but rather one of many in an unacceptable pattern of harassment by Major-General Bluth and the Jewish Department of the GSS. Once again, we see how the GSS invests considerable human and material resources in persecuting idealistic youth instead of focusing on Israel’s genuine enemies. The resources could have been directed to immeasurably more important efforts. Administrative orders, which deny the recipients the basic ability to defend themselves, have become a corrupt tool used by the system to harass pioneers working to strengthen communities in Yehuda and Shomron and the security of the region. Sometimes the orders demonstrate a devotion greater than that of the GSS itself,” Attorney Keidar concluded.