Teenager detained without trial over Palestinian attacks

Authorities are much more lenient toward Jewish extremists than they are toward Palestinians suspected of militant activity, critics say.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu told his cabinet August. 2 that there is “zero tolerance” for terrorism and hate crimes in Israel, Reuters news agency reported. He had lived in recent months in unauthorized Jewish settlement encampments in the West Bank set up by the “hilltop youth”, the Shin Bet said, using a term referring to radicalized Jewish teen squatters on West Bank hilltops who have been known to attack Palestinians and their property.

In the last decade, hundreds of attacks against Palestinians in the West Bank have been attributed to Jewish extremists, typically residents of Jewish outposts that are outlawed under both Israeli and global law. The assaults have ranged from vandalism of property to the burning of mosques and houses.

The suspected Jewish terrorist arrested as part of the Shin Bet’s investigation of a firebombing that killed a Palestinian toddler will be held in custody for at least six days.

The attack has been firmly condemned by the global community, including by Israel where huge demonstrations were staged to denounce hatred. Religion can be a driving factor, as in June when extremists torched part of a shrine in northern Israel where Christians believe Jesus carried out the miracle of loaves and fishes.

Were the two attacks related? In graffiti left at a few of the websites, the perpetrators dubbed these “price-tag” assaults, a reputation that has caught within the public discourse.

None of the three recently-arrested Jewish extremists, however, has been accused of involvement in last week’s deadly attack.

In the wake of the Duma atrocity, Israel’s security cabinet ordered its forces to “take all necessary steps and use all means at their disposal” to capture the arsonists and “prevent similar attacks”.

Among those arrested on Tuesday was Meir Ettinger, grandson of Meir Kahane and Shin Bet’s number one most wanted Jewish extremism suspect But there was no comment on whether there is any suspicion of any link between the 24-year-old – who had previously been banned from Jerusalem and the West Bank – and the Duma attack.

In the past six years there have been no convictions and only a handful of arrests have taken place. It is typically based on intelligence rather than evidence and is highly controversial. Rights organizations have labored to finish the follow.

Palestinian Imam Ibrahim Abu Luha looks out a mosque window that was set alight in an overnight attack in Al-Jaba’ah village near the West Bank city of Bethlehem February 25, 2015.

One of those stabbed in Jerusalem, Shira Banki, 16, died as a result of her wounds on Sunday.

Kahane, Ettinger’s grandfather, was an ultra-Zionist rabbi who advocated expelling Arabs from Israel and Palestinian territories. Although suspected in previous attacks, he has never been indicted.

Israeli police said they were investigating the attack.

A day later, local Muslim and Arab Christian leaders signed a document asserting that the Jews had no religious or historical connection to the Temple Mount, and therefore should not be permitted to visit the holy site.

Administrative detention dates from British-mandated Palestine, and Israel normally applies it against Palestinians, allowing them to be held without trial for renewable six-month periods.

At a news conference Wednesday, Meyer’s parents said they had been given no reason for their son’s detention.