During a closed meeting Wednesday in the Knesset's Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee, a disagreement broke out between Defense Minister Israel Katz (Likud) and several Knesset members over the government's policy on administrative detentions of settlers and hilltop youth.
Yesh Atid MKs Elazar Stern and Ram Ben Barak criticized Katz for his refusal to implement administrative detentions. "These are Jewish terrorists. As long as no real action is taken, the situation will continue and even escalate," they claimed.
Minister Katz rejected their claims, explaining, "I stand behind the decision not to approve administrative detentions. This is not a political consideration or related to primaries. These are 70 youths from a hardcore group, out of 300 in a broader core, and 800 in total. No one - not the Shin Bet (ISA), not the police, not the IDF - has requested administrative detentions."
Katz explained that there are currently 132 farms in Judea and Samaria which are in the process of being normalized, most of which contribute to security. In contrast, he noted, there are 42 outposts in Areas A and B, where some of the hilltop youths operate.
MK Meir Porush (United Torah Judaism) commented during the discussion, "Maybe you should transfer the handling of the hilltop youths to Attorney General? She certainly has many ideas when it comes to the haredim." Minister Katz replied, "The Attorney General is not here."
MKs Tzvi Succot (Religious Zionism), Limor Son Har-Melech (Otzma Yehudit), and Sharon Nir (Yisrael Beytenu) defended the Defense Minister’s position. They stated, "The project manager, Avichai Tana'ami, is doing professional and sensitive work with the hilltop youths."
Son Har-Melech blasted Ben Barak and MK Merav Michaeli (the Democrats), saying, "You are trivializing the concept of terrorism. There are ways to address the hilltop youths - administrative detentions is not one of them."
Later, Katz addressed the security situation, saying, "There has not been a better security situation on the northern border in 20 years. We are responding to and neutralizing every security threat. Since the end of 'Northern Arrows,' 360 Hezbollah terrorists have been killed."