IDF Central Command issues sweeping administrative restrictions against settler activists

Central Command chief Maj. Gen. Avi Blot has issued a series of unusual administrative restriction orders in recent days against right-wing activists in Judea and Samaria. The orders require the recipients to remain under full house arrest for months, and in some cases add further restrictions such as mandatory reporting to a police station.

Among those named are family men, a yeshiva student, and two activists who recently became engaged. They say the orders are preventing them from preparing for their weddings. One of the orders was issued against Tal Yinon Dardik, a married father of three who runs a sheep farm in Kfar Tarfon in Binyamin. Through lawyers from Honenu, he said the order forces him to stay for six months in his mother-in-law’s home, even though she is a widow with hearing loss and did not consent, and even though her condition makes it impractical.

Another order was delivered by detectives from the Judea and Samaria District’s investigations unit to Elishiv Brochi, a yeshiva student from Havat Hesed LeAvraham near Har Hatzur in Binyamin. Additional orders were given to Moshe Goldis, a sheep herder in his 20s from Givat Mekaneh Avraham, and to Malachi Lehungadim, 21, from Givat Tel Telpiyot. Both say they were served shortly after becoming engaged and cannot leave home to arrange wedding preparations, including booking a hall or signing a rental contract.

Brochi said he was shocked to receive, without warning, what he called a “crazy administrative order” that stripped him of his liberty. He added that he was being hit in the middle of life with restrictions “not far from prison” and without any chance to defend himself. He also argued that administrative orders, which were meant to prevent imminent attacks, have become a tool for mass punishment against lawful activity that the security establishment does not like, calling them “draconian and inhumane.”