Supreme Court Justice Alex Stein slammed Israel’s Probation Service after it submitted an early positive report in the case of Mark Feigel, the main suspect in the serious arson incident near Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu’s residence in September.

Stein said that the Probation Service acted on its own initiative to submit a supplementary report, even though it wasn’t required by a court decision.

Stein emphasized that the report was submitted directly to him without his request—a full month and a half before the court’s deadline—and that no clear justification was given for the priority afforded to this case over other cases.

Stein wrote, “Since the Probation Service operates under heavy workloads, I wondered what caused it to give priority particularly to this case. I did not receive a satisfactory answer to this question.”

Stein said that he ordered that the decision be forwarded for review by the supervisors of the Probation Service for the unusual preference given to the case.

It should be noted that around two months ago, the Supreme Court rejected the prosecution’s appeal and ordered that Feigel be released to house arrest despite his serious alleged crimes—multiple counts of arson, malicious damage, obstruction of justice, and one count of intentional damage to a vehicle.

A representative of the prosecution said during the hearing, “This is an incident with unique characteristics. We are not talking about a protest case or a routine disturbance of order, but rather a planned, meticulous criminal organization replete with obstruction of justice—an organization that is dangerous and led to actual damage and has a dimension of a threat to the governance of the state.”

Feigel, who is a Brothers in Arms leftist protester, allegedly headed a group of four people in a plan to create a “ring of fire” around the Prime Minister’s residence on Azza Street and other locations. He set up a group on Signal called “Smoking Together” and issued orders to its members to disguise themselves and to carry out acts of arson at certain locations.

Early in the morning of September 3, 2025, the suspects, wearing disguises and dark clothing, set fire to five garbage dumpsters, some near residential buildings and parked vehicles, and then fled the scene. The fires caused a large blaze, damaging a number of vehicles and forcing the evacuation of neighborhood residents from nearby buildings.

(YWN Israel Desk—Jerusalem)