Lawmakers for Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s ruling Likud Party are preparing to push for the release of Israeli Jews held without charges in administrative detention in the wake of Yoav Gallant’s removal as defense minister, Srugim reported on Wednesday.
Likud parliamentarian Amit Halevi, a member of the Knesset Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee, earlier this week visited filmmaker Avraham Shapira, who was arrested at Gallant’s orders and has been detained at Rimonim Prison without charges for some three months.
At the time of his arrest, Shapira was working on an investigative film about the activities of the Shin Bet (Israel Security Agency) in the 1990s, “including embarrassing affairs for the ISA such as the use of instigator agents, the use of [undercover agent] Avishai Raviv among the settlers and other stories that will shake the country,” according to his lawyer.
Halevi told Shapira that a group of Knesset members had tried to get Gallant to cancel the detention orders against him and other Israelis held without charges. Following Gallant’s departure, they intend to increase the pressure on Defense Minister Israel Katz.
Last week, Religious Zionism Party lawmaker Simcha Rothman, who heads the Constitution, Law and Justice Committee, slammed Shapira’s incarceration following a visit to the detained man, stressing that, with regard to Israeli citizens, administrative arrests must be used “in the most limited way.
“Surely and especially when it concerns the administrative arrest of a journalist who is working on a documentary about the Shin Bet, this cannot be done lightly, as was apparently done in this case,” Rothman said.
Jerusalem asserts that administrative detention is necessary to prevent attacks or to detain terrorism suspects without sharing evidence that could endanger intelligence sources. During Gallant’s two years in office, the use of administrative detention against Israelis reached an all-time high.
Netanyahu announced Gallant’s firing on Nov. 5, saying it was prompted by disagreements on how to conduct the wars against Hamas, Hezbollah and other Iranian terrorist proxies in the region.
Shortly before his dismissal, Gallant signed off on the administrative detention for six months of 19-year-old Eliyakim Harel, a resident of the Binyamin region of southern Samaria, marking the 31st such order since he was named defense minister in late 2022. In the 74 years preceding Gallant’s tenure, a total of some 25 Israelis were held without charges.
