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Further arrests as crackdown continues on Jewish extremists

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A further two Jewish extremist activists were arrested yesterday, one placed under administrative detention, as Israeli authorities continued to crack down on those implicated in hate crimes.

Last week, the country was shocked by two deadly attacks. An ultra-Orthodox man stabbed six people at the Jerusalem gay pride parade and hours later a Palestinian home in the West Bank village of Duma was set ablaze, most likely by Jewish extremists. Israeli leaders thoroughly condemned the attacks, calling them acts of terror and pledged to defeat those responsible.

Earlier this week, Meir Ettinger a well-known extremist agitator, was arrested having already been banned from entering Jerusalem and the West Bank due to his fanatical activity. The Shin Bet internal security agency said he had been apprehended due to “his involvement and activities in extremist Jewish organisations.”

Israeli forces appeared to further step up their efforts to stamp out hate crimes yesterday arresting two additional suspected agitators. Most significantly, 18-year-old Mordechai Mayer was handed a six-month administrative detention order, which allows him to be held without charge or trial. The anti-terror measure has only previously been applied to Palestinian terror suspects. Mayer has previously been questioned by police over arson attacks at two prominent churches, Dormition Abbey in Jerusalem and the Church of the Multiplication on the shores of the Sea of Galilee, but was released without charge.

Also yesterday, Aviatar Slonim was arrested on suspicion of belonging to an extremist group which aims to harm Arabs. He has previously been questioned over an arson attack on a Palestinian home in the South Hebron Hills in 2014, but no charges were brought. He was however given an order banning his entry to Jerusalem and the West Bank.

It is unclear whether any of those arrested so far this week are suspected of participating in last week’s attack. However, Defence Minister Moshe Ya’alon vowed yesterday that Israel “will never tolerate terror attacks like the ones in Duma or at the gay pride parade in Jerusalem.”