Following a severe deterioration in the health of settler activist Tal-Yinon Dardik, now on his 17th day of a hunger strike, his mother Bracha Dardik is demanding his immediate release from custody. The mother’s appeal is directed at Defense Minister Israel Katz and Central Command chief Major General Avi Bluth, claiming her son is in real danger of dying. The plea comes after his body temperature was measured at just 34 degrees Celsius (93.2°F) Tuesday night, and he has experienced repeated fainting episodes in recent days. Due to the urgent medical situation, the Honenu legal aid organization filed an emergency request for his immediate evacuation to a hospital.
1+In her statement, Dardik described the sequence of events leading to the arrest, explaining that about a month ago her son received an administrative house arrest order at his mother-in-law’s home—a deaf widow living in a small house. According to her, the order is completely unenforceable, including from a religious law perspective, and her son therefore appealed it. Dardik was later brought before a magistrate court judge who ordered his release, but police appealed to the district court. Judge Hagit Mack-Kalmanovitz accepted the appeal and kept him in custody, a decision that drew sharp criticism from the mother.
The mother leveled pointed criticism at the judge, recalling a 2016 decision in which Mack-Kalmanovitz released a terrorist who had carried out a deadly attack that same day, while choosing to keep her son behind bars. Dardik addressed Major General Avi Bluth directly and called on him to stop using administrative orders against settlers in Judea and Samaria, adding that if there are suspicions, proper due process should be conducted.
1+She also turned to Defense Minister Israel Katz and demanded he keep his promises and act to cancel administrative detentions immediately: “Israel Katz, about a year ago you promised, you promised that you’re canceling administrative detentions, and the bottom line is on the ground you know it’s not happening. We reached out to you, public figures reached out to you, and your response is to say and tell a story that you don’t know what it’s about, and that there’s nothing you can do, and that’s a lie, it’s within your authority and knowledge. Israel, release this, release my son before it’s too late.”