On Feb. 25, Channel 10 revealed that a judge and a state investigator had coordinated via text messaging to extend the detention of suspects arrested in connection with Case 4000, the investigation involving Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s relations with the telecommunications tycoon Shaul Elovitch. For many, the revelation immediately brought to mind the findings of a recent Amnesty International report, “Israel and the Occupied Palestinian Territories, 2017/2018.”
In fact, it is hard to ignore the similarities between Amnesty’s report — which determined that Israel is holding hundreds of Palestinians in administrative detention for long periods without trial — and the ease with which arrests were made in Israel by Israel Police in the Netanyahu-Elovitch case. The “storm of arrests” resulting from Case 4000 has finally put this item on Israel’s public agenda.
