'Use administrative detention for hooligans'

MK Alex Miller (Israel Beiteinu), chairman of the Knesset Education, Culture and Sports Committee, has proposed a bill that would allow police to put rowdy sports fans in administrative detention.

Miller’s initiative came ahead of his committee’s meeting on Monday, to discuss violence at soccer games. Public Security Minister Yitzhak Aharonovitch (Israel Beiteinu) and Israel Football Association chairman Avi Luzon plan to participate in the discussion.

“To prevent a national tragedy like there was in Egypt [at least 79 people were killed and more than 1,000 were injured at a match in Port Said on February 1], and because violence is on the rise on Israeli soccer fields, we must take very extreme steps against hooligans,” Miller explained.

According to the MK, the way to deter spectators at soccer games from acting violently is to give the police “significant tools” to stop them.

Miller’s proposal allows for rowdy soccer fans to be put in prison without a trial. The bill has yet to be put to a ministerial vote or any readings in the Knesset.

MK Michael Ben-Ari (National Union) slammed Miller’s bill, saying that the “bizarre proposal is taken from dark regimes.”

In a country with rule of law, there must be fair trials, and police officers cannot be turned into judges that send people to jail without proof, Ben-Ari said.