A notorious Jewish extremist who was arrested by Israel's secret Shin Bet security services after the horrific firebombing of a Palestinian home last summer will be released from detention in a couple weeks, according to Israeli prosecutors quoted by Haaretz and The Times Of Israel.
Meir Ettinger was ordered to be held in administrative detention for six months after the fatal firebombing of the home of the Dawabshe family in the West Bank village of Duma in July. The attack killed an 18-month-old baby and both the baby's parents.
Ettinger's administrative detention was later extended by an additional four months.
The Shin Bet did not protest the decision to release Ettinger, who is the grandson of an infamous extremist rabbi, Meir Kahane, who wanted to overthrow the Israeli government and replace it with a Jewish monarchy and whose followers often called him "Kahane, King Of Israel."
The Shin Bet said that releasing Ettinger was "an issue of balance" between the threat he poses and the severity of keeping him detained without charge, the Times Of Israel reported.
Seriously?!? Jewish extremist Meir Ettinger to be freed from prison https://t.co/aNNwkE7Zy8
— Sarah Tuttle-Singer (@TuttleSinger) May 17, 2016
The left-wing Israeli daily Haaretz reported that once Ettinger is released on June 1, he will still be restricted from making contact with certain people or living in certain places. The Haaretz report did not specify who those people were, or where those places are.
--HS
