Israeli police arrest 10 Jewish extremists

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Israeli police arrested early on Wednesday 10 members of a far-right Jewish organization after an extensive undercover investigation into its operations, a police spokesperson said.

Police spokesperson Luba Samri said in a statement that the detainees are members of Lehava, a Jewish anti-assimilation group. "They were detained for questioning on suspicion of incitement to carry out violent acts and terror for racial motivations," Samri said.

Advocate Itamar Ben Gvir, a prominent far-right activist, said that one of those arrested was Lehava leader Bentzi Gopstein.

The arrests come a day after three Lehava members were indicted in the Jerusalem District Court for setting fire to the Hebrew-Arab bilingual school in Jerusalem.

According to the indictment, on Nov. 29, the trio set ablaze classrooms in the bilingual school, which has both Arab and Jewish students, and spray-painted racist graffiti on the walls. The act was widely condemned by Israeli leaders across the political spectrum.

Lehava opposes inter-religious marriages between Jewish women and Arab men.

Its activists made national headlines in August, when they orchestrated a protest outside a wedding of a mixed Israeli-Arab couple in Jaffa in order to interrupt their marriage. Several human rights groups have appealed the court to persecute the group for incitement to violence and racism.

The organization was founded by disciples of Rabbi Meir Kahana and his extremist and ultra-nationalist Kach movement, which were banned from the Knesset for racism in 1988 and outlawed in 1994. Endit

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