Israel's new Defense Minister Israel Katz announced an end to administrative detention orders for West Bank settlers on Friday, meaning Israel will now be using the controversial policy of holding suspects without charge only against Palestinian terror suspects, reports The Times of Israel.

While the practice is primarily deployed against Palestinians, it is also used against some extremist Jewish Israelis, which has drawn increasing criticism of the ruling Likud party by far-right coalition members. The measure sees individuals held without charge for up to six months at a time. The detentions can be renewed indefinitely while allowing military prosecutors to keep suspects from being able to see the evidence against them.

“In a reality where the Jewish settlement in Judea and Samaria is subject to serious Palestinian terror threats and unjustified international sanctions are taken against the settlers, it is not appropriate for the State of Israel to take such a severe measure against the people of the settlements,” Katz said in a statement, referring to the West Bank by its biblical name.

Katz met with Shin Bet chief Ronen Bar this week and told him that he had decided “to stop the use of administrative detention orders against Jewish settlers in Judea and Samaria, and asked him to put alternative tools in place,” Katz’s office said.

The Shin Bet has reportedly warned against the move, with Bar saying in June that banning the measure against Israelis “will result in an immediate, severe and serious harm to the security of the state” in cases where there is clear information that a suspect may carry out a terror attack.