Knesset Committee to hold deliberation on Yitzhar minor’s situation

Monday, August 1, 2016, 19:54 On Monday, July 25, the Knesset Secretariat authorized the request of Knesset Members Betzalel Smotrich and Rabbi Yehuda Glick to hold an urgent deliberation on the Yitzhar minor’s case with the Knesset Committee for the Rights of the Child. The deliberation will be held on Tuesday, August 2 at 9:00 AM and will bring to the public’s attention the use of administrative orders. Currently approximately 40 Jews are under restrictive administrative orders, many of them minors.
The 15-year old Yitzhar minor is banned from entering Yehduda and Shomron, including his own home, by administrative order and is also under house arrest at night. As with all administrative orders no evidence has been presented and the minor has not been brought to trial. Since July 6, for almost a month, the minor has been wandering from house to house due to the difficulty of finding a host family. The disruptive house checks carried out by the police, at any and all hours of the night, sometimes several times a night, making an excessive amount of noise, needlessly disturbing the hosts and their neighbors, has created a situation in which no-one is willing to host the minor for more than one night.
The minor has been detained several times on suspicion of violating the order, including after reporting to a police station and informing them that he did not have a place to sleep. He has also been accused of being late with informing the police of his address for the night. The unique situation in which a minor has been distanced from his own home, without a judicial procedure and an expert opinion from a social worker and the Youth Probation Service, caused the Knesset Committee for the Rights of the Child to strongly oppose the procedure. Also the statements of several judges before whom the minor was brought after he was detained at his home have influenced the Knesset Committee for the Rights of the Child.
The minor and his family, Honenu staff members who are assisting the family with legal counsel, and the families of other individuals being held under administrative orders are expected to participate in the Knesset deliberation.
Honenu reports that currently approximately 40 Jews are being held under administrative orders of house arrest, distancing from Yehuda, Shomron and other regions, and/or making contact with specific individuals, a significant portion of them minors. The vast majority of the orders have been repeatedly extended by the GOC’s of the Central and Home Front Commands, who rely on the claims of the Jewish Department of the ISA, according to which the individuals under administrative distancing orders are liable to disturb the public peace.
In mid-July 2016, in his decision on the case of a youth being held under an administrative restrictive order, Military Court of Appeals Judge Col. Netanel Benisho leveled criticism at the Central Command with regard to the issuing of dozens of administrative restrictive orders to Jews over the past year. Judge Col. Benisho accepted the opinion of Honenu Attorney Menasheh Yado that the Central Command systematically withheld the right to a hearing before serving the administrative orders, and called for care to be taken that this right is granted. Additionally Judge Col. Benisho called on lawmakers to require mandatory appearance in court within a set period of time in every case of an administrative restrictive order, as is currently done in the case of an administrative detention order. The purpose is to increase the legal supervision of administrative orders, which are served without evidence being presented and without a customary judicial procedure.