Police detectives and Israel Security Agency (ISA) agents on Wednesday morning issued administrative distancing orders to three Jewish youths, leading one rights group to warn Israel's legal system is being warped.
One of the youths, a resident of Kiryat Arba adjacent to Hevron in Judea, was handed a two-month long nighttime house arrest, confining him to remain indoors every night, even as he was banned from his home.
He was given a distancing order from Judea and Samaria for a year, and from Jerusalem for a half-year, and in addition was forbidden from contacting four of his friends.
Another minor from Ma'ale Adumim, a suburb to the east of Jerusalem, was given an eight-month distancing order from Judea and Samaria not including his hometown, and a six-month order distancing him from the capital.
The third youth, who is no longer a minor, was distanced for a year from Judea and Samaria, and for six months from Jerusalem.
The various orders were signed by the new IDF Central Commander Maj. Gen. Roni Numa, as well as IDF Homefront Command chief Yoel Strick.
"There will be an outburst"
The Honenu legal aid organization strongly condemned the administrative orders, which are a legal relic from the British Mandate and are only allowed in times of emergency.
The orders are not backed by evidence but rather by "secret information" only, which was not presented to the attorneys of the three youths.
Honenu reports that there has been a recent escalation in the harsh treatment of Jewish residents of Judea and Samaria by the authorities, noting a string of distancing orders.
Shmuel Meidad, director of Honenu, said, "recently when the police investigate someone and can't succeed in accusing him - they give him an administrative penal order which doesn't require proving a thing and can go around the courts."
"In most cases (those affected are) youths who are expelled from their homes and thrown to the street, because the (military) prosecutor doesn't see a need to present evidence, but rather skips over dealing with the law," said Meidad.
The Honenu director warned, "the public living their daily routine doesn't sense this threatening danger. Therefore it still is silent. But the moment the depth of the injustice and falsification is revealed, there will be an outburst that we've never seen the likes of, and therefore we feel a need to repeat this warning again and again."