Shin Bet Director Ronen Bar explained for the first time on Thursday why Amiram Ben-Uliel, who was convicted of murdering members of the Dawabsheh family in Duma, is kept in solitary confinement.
In a letter addressed to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir, Bar wrote: "Intelligence we received about him, after his imprisonment, shows, among other things, that even during his incarceration, Ben-Uliel was in contact with extremist activists and he serves as a role model for those activists."
Bar noted in the letter that, "as you know, the Israel Prisons Service does not have a security wing for Jewish prisoners, and therefore the service meets the requests of Jewish prisoners to serve their sentence in the religious wing while keeping to the limits that come with them being security prisoners.
However," Bar added, "Amid Ben-Uliel's circumstances and the intelligence that was received about him, we can not answer his requests in this regard due to his influence on others."
He revealed that the Shin Bet and IPS recently considered adding an additional prisoner to Ben-Uliel's cell, but "several Jewish inmates took exception to the idea and asked to refrain from moving to Ben-Uliel's cell."
Bar clarified that the Shin Bet will not express opposition to transferring Ben-Uliel to a religious cell for Rosh Hashana and Yom Kippur: "It should be clear that if a request is submitted by the prisoner to stay in the religious wing during Rosh Hashana and Yom Kippur, the organization would not express opposition, similarly to our opinion regarding Ben-Uliel's stay in the religious wing last Passover."
In conclusion, he wrote, "The entry of rabbis to his cell for Torah study will be considered," and added that "Ben-Uliel's threat level will be evaluated from time to time to consider the possibility of improving his conditions."