Miriam Dardik, the wife of Tal Dardik, a resident of Kfar Tzrifin in Samaria, sharply criticized Central Command chief Avi Bluth after her husband was arrested for refusing to comply with an administrative order requiring him to spend six months under house arrest at his mother-in-law's home.
Tal Dardik, a father of four, has been in custody for two days and has launched a hunger strike since his arrest. In a video message, Miriam Dardik said the family's circumstances made it impossible to comply with the order, noting that she had given birth only a week and a half earlier. She said her mother, who was designated to host the house arrest, lives alone in a small apartment and suffers from severe hearing impairment.
"What Avi Bluth did is a horrifying act. To put my husband in prison when it's only a week and a half after giving birth," she said. According to Dardik, after the family informed authorities that they could not carry out the order, her husband was arrested and later indicted, with prosecutors seeking to keep him in custody until the end of legal proceedings. She described the administrative order as "tyrannical and oppressive," claiming her husband was arrested "without evidence, without a trial, without a criminal record, and without even explaining to us what and why he was arrested."
Dardik called on Defense Minister Israel Katz and other officials to halt the use of administrative orders against settlers. She said the family operates a farm spanning thousands of dunams and appealed for public support in challenging the order.
Attorney Moshe Polsky of the Honenu legal aid organization, which represents Dardik, argued that the order was issued without legal authority or sufficient factual examination. He contended that the Central Command chief lacks the authority to impose house arrest at another person's residence and said officials failed to verify whether Dardik's mother-in-law consented or was capable of accommodating the arrangement. "This is persecution and an improper use of the law in order to persecute settlers," Polsky said.