Deputy Attorney General Raz Nazri together with MKs Elazar Stern (Yesh Atid), Osama Saadi (Joint List) and Bezalel Smotrich (Jewish Home) participated Sunday afternoon in a panel regarding administrative detentions during an Israel Bar Association conference.
"I am here today, both as a jurist and as a representative of the state, to say that we do not like administrative detentions and that it is not the ideal practice," Nazri said. "If it were possible, we would go to trial. The ideal solution doesn't always work out, just like in other areas of life. Administrative detentions are the lesser evil and simply save lives."
The Deputy Attorney General stressed the need for issuing administrative orders and explained that “If I disclose the sources, I cannot prevent the next attack. So there is no choice but to issue administrative detention. This is not a punishment but a preventive tool designed to save lives. Such detentions are approved by court which views all the evidence.”
Nazri revealed that after the murder of the Dawabsheh family in the village of Duma, two other incidents took place where Molotov cocktails were thrown into Palestinian houses, but did not ignite. "Administrative detention is not like a game of soccer, I'm not looking for a draw. When there are zero attacks there will be zero administrative arrests,” stressed Nazri.
"I would be happy if the result was zero-zero but reality shows that there are more Arab detainees because there are more Palestinian terrorists," added the Deputy Attorney General.
“Ettinger is not the enemy”
MK Smotrich attacked the hastiness of administrative decrees against Jews. "No judge can get a case and decide in a minute. There is no judicial review on administrative detentions and this is absurd," he fired.
Smotrich further criticized the decision to not allow a right-wing activist Meir Ettinger to participate in the brit milah ceremony of his eldest son. When Nazri replied that they allowed Ettinger to bring relatives to prison and perform the ceremony there, Smotrich sarcastically responded: ''how very heart-warming''.
"We are tired of the state of Israel not understanding that it is at war. Administrative detention just hurts innocent people. I do not have blind trust in the security system. Mistakes can be made and I will not take that risk and therefore administrative detention that is bad because it could hurt the innocent" concluded MK Smotrich.
MK Stern retaliated to Smotrich comments. “Terror is terror is terror and I would say Jewish terror is worse than Arab terror.”
MK Saadi also sharply criticised administrative detentions and said, "You've turned it into easiest solution - a Palestinian detainee is brought forth, questioned for half an hour and then sent into administrative detention for six months."