Carmeli family; Photo courtesy of the photographer
Thursday, January 12, 2023, 12:28 The parents of two Shomron residents under administrative detention orders signed by Former Defense Minister Benny Gantz wrote a letter to the current Defense Minister, Yoav Gallant, and asked him to cancel the orders. In their letter, they noted that their sons had received the orders without the ability to defend themselves in a legal forum: “Our children have been under administrative detention for approximately two months, by the order of Former Defense Minister Benny Gantz, without having been put on trial. When the previous government was in power, approximately 40 members of Knesset wrote a letter to Former Defense Minister Ganz, calling on him to cancel these orders because they are emergency measures meant for use against terrorists, and by no means for use against Jews even if there is a suspicion that they violated the law.
“Unfortunately, Former Defense Minister Gantz chose not to agree to this request by a sizeable number of Knesset members and went so far as to accuse [the detainees] of ‘giving support to terror’. Thus he conceded to the misrepresentation that the GSS is trying to form of there being a ‘Jewish terror organization’.”
The parents of the administrative detainees emphasized the changes in policies that the new government has implemented and requested that Defense Minister Gallant also act for change and cancel the orders imposed on their sons: “There has been a change in government and we, together with countless citizens, hope that we will see a substantial change in the approach to many issues, among them the unethical and disproportionate persecution of the population of Yehuda and Shomron that the left-wing government imposed, one of the low points of which is the insane use of administrative orders in general and administrative detentions in particular. We very much hope, now that you have entered your new post at this critical time, that you will act to change the situation, as a start, by ordering the cancelation of the administrative detentions of Avraham Ya’ir and Elhai. We would be very happy to meet with you and to explain to you the injustice that is caused by the use of these orders.”
Elhai Carmeli, a married father of a baby, and Avraham Ya’ir Yered have been under administrative detention since November 2022. Former Defense Minister Benny Gantz signed the four-month detention orders after the police requested remand extensions for them, but the court refused and ordered their release. Former DM Gantz also rejected Carmeli’s request to attend his sister’s wedding. Carmeli then petitioned the High Court of Justice with the assistance of Honenu Attorneys Adi Keidar and Moshe Poleski. The court rejected the petition, and Carmeli did not attend his sister’s wedding.
Honenu Attorney Adi Keidar stated after Minister Gantz’s refusal to cancel the orders, “The use of administrative orders in the cases before us is unacceptable and disproportionate. Orders meant to protect Israel’s security are being used for cynical and narrow political purposes. … We hope that the orders will be examined again soon, with discretion, seriously, and then canceled.”