Israeli Defence Minister Clashes with Military, General Refuses Order

Israeli Defence Minister Israel Katz was embroiled in an extraordinary feud with the military on Sunday evening. The dispute sparked anger from the opposition and delight on the right wing. Katz censured the head of the IDF Central Command, Major General Avi Bluth, and announced his replacement on live television. The military quickly issued a sharp statement saying Bluth would remain in his post, noting the defence minister did not have the authority to unilaterally dismiss him. Speaking to right-wing Channel 14 news, Katz said Bluth had violated his policy by seeking to renew an administrative detention order against a violent settler. The detention was deemed unacceptable. The settler, Tal Yinon Dardik, is suspected of a brutal attack in March on Khirbet Humsa, a Palestinian village in the West Bank, where he, along with other extremist settlers, allegedly stripped a Palestinian victim, bound his genitals with a plastic tie, and paraded him around the village. Dardik, who lives in an agricultural outpost in Area B of the West Bank, which is under Palestinian civil control, denied participating in the incident.