Israeli Security Agency Shin Bet said on Thursday that the three Jewish suspects arrested for setting fire to a bilingual Israeli-Arab school in Jerusalem two weeks ago are members of an extremist anti-assimilation group known as Lehava.

Yitzhak Gabay from Jerusalem, and Nachman Twito and his brother Shlomo Twito from Beitar Ilit (a Jewish settlement in the West Bank) were arrested earlier this week and admitted to setting fire to the school and spraying anti-Arab graffiti, according to the Security Agency's statement.

The Shin Bet also said that the three young men said they committed the act "since Jews and Arabs go to school together and in order to raise awareness to the objection to coexistence and assimilation."

Two weeks ago, parts of the Max Rayne Hand in Hand school were set on fire, resulting in damage to several classrooms, and graffiti containing racial slurs, including "death to Arabs", was spray painted. The act was said to be part of the price tag attacks perpetrated by Jewish right-wing extremists vandalizing Palestinian property or religious sites.

The school, home to 1,000 pupils, is the biggest Jewish-Arab institute run by Jewish and Arab educationists since 1998.

Lehava is an extremist organization that opposes inter-religious marriages between Jewish women and non-Jewish -- particularly Arab -- men. It was founded by disciples of Meir Kahana and Kahana's extreme and ultra-nationalist Kach movement banned in Israel.

The group had recently orchestrated a protest outside a wedding of a mixed Israeli-Arab couple in Jaffa in opposition to their marriage. Several human rights groups have urged prosecution of the group for incitement to violence and racism. Endi

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