Defense Minister Yoav Gallant, following the recommendation of the Shin Bet, today (Wednesday) signed four administrative detention orders against four Jews who are accused of taking part in anti-Arab riots in Judea and Samaria on Saturday.
Dozens of far-right activists clashed with Palestinian Authority citizens near the Arab village of Umm Safa on Saturday. IDF forces arrived at the scene to break up the fight, and one soldier was injured when stones were thrown at the forces.
A few minutes later, a group of Jewish rioters entered the village and burned at least two houses and two vehicles.
The anti-Arab riots followed the murder of four civilians in a terrorist shooting attack at a gas station and restaurant near Eli last week.
The Honenu legal organization strongly criticized the administrative detention orders and stated that the orders were revealed to the media before they were revealed to the suspects or their attorneys.
"Instead of protecting the security of the citizens of Israel, Minister Gallant is busy playing media games on the backs of the settlers in Judea and Samaria. Minister Gallant leaks to the media from his office and briefs journalists like he is one of those who seek to destroy the settlements, and this is done instead of conducting himself as would be expected and according to the law by first delivering the orders [to the defendants] in an orderly and legal manner," the organization stated.
"The minister, in his conduct, is adding sin to crime. The blood is not yet dry from the severe attacks that the settlement experienced just a few days ago, and instead of giving security, the minister chose to violate human rights in the most inhumane way. Shameful."
Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich issued a scathing rebuke to Gallant over the administrative detention orders.
"Against lawbreakers, criminal measures must be taken, and if only the systems were more professional and less lazy, they would be more than enough. The use of administrative detention against settlers is democratically and morally wrong. When its purpose is not to prevent future risk, but to settle accounts with the detainees for past acts attributed to them, it is also totally illegal," Smotrich wrote on Twitter.