Zini said to veto agents’ call to put Jewish extremists in administrative detention

Shin Bet head reportedly thinks there are other means to rein in soaring settler violence, and that the unit tasked with countering it sometimes harasses suspects for no reason

Shin Bet chief David Zini has nixed field agents’ advice to place certain Jewish extremists in administrative detention amid a surge of attacks on Palestinians in the West Bank, Hebrew media reported Tuesday.

Suspects identified by security services can be held in administrative detention for months on end with no trial. The tool is typically used against Palestinians when there is not enough evidence for a regular arrest warrant.

Use of administrative detention against Jews has always been negligible. Defense Minister Israel Katz halted it entirely upon taking office in November 2024 — amid a massive surge in settler attacks on Palestinians — and recently clashed with an IDF general who sought to extend a restraining order against a Jewish terror suspect.

Despite Katz’s directive, Shin Bet field agents — especially from a unit tasked with countering extremist Jewish violence — have “over the past few months” recommended that Zini place several Jewish extremists in administrative detention, Channel 13 said, citing Shin Bet and law enforcement sources.

But Zini is convinced that Jewish extremism can be contained through other means, and that the Shin Bet’s so-called Jewish Department sometimes harasses Jewish suspects for no reason, the sources said, according to Channel 13.

In a response to the network, the Shin Bet said it “does not comment on the discussions of professionals within the service.”

Zini, a self-described “messianic” former general affiliated with the ultraconservative Har HaMor yeshiva, has previously cut the Jewish Department’s resources, downplayed settler violence as cases of “friction” and recommended the use of electronic monitor bracelets, rather than administrative detention, to rein in culprits, according to Hebrew media.

Settler violence has mounted in recent months, with near-daily, sometimes deadly attacks taking place throughout the West Bank, but few suspects arrested and charged. Critics accuse the government of condoning or even encouraging the attacks.

Palestinian media reported Tuesday that settlers had overnight raided several Nablus-area villages where they set fire to cars, spray-painted the word “revenge” and damaged one village’s electrical grid.

Shin Bet figures from earlier this year found that three times more Palestinians were victims of nationalist attacks in the West Bank than Jews.

The military recorded 867 incidents of nationalist crime and settler violence in 2025, up from 682 incidents in 2024.