Top wanted Jewish settler arrested by Israeli security services

The Israeli security services arrested on Monday a far-right Jewish settler for his alleged involvement with a far-right militant organization, a spokesperson for the Shin Bet Security Agency confirmed to Xinhua.

Meir Ettinger, a 24 year-old settler originally from the Jewish outpost of Givat Ronen south of Nablus in the West Bank, was arrested by the Shin Bet in a special operation in coordination with Israeli police.

Ettinger, a grandson of the late right-wing extremist Rabbi Meir Kahane, is one of the most wanted suspects for his alleged involvement in planning attacks against Palestinians in order to cause an escalation in the violence between Jews and Palestinians in the area.

Intelligence services believe Ettinger planned attacks against Palestinians throughout 2014 and was involved with the torching of the Church of Multiplication of the Loaves and Fishes in the Galilee in northern Israel in June, the Ha'aretz daily reported Monday.

He was convicted two years ago for his part in an espionage plan carried out by far-right settlers to spy on the Israeli army's movement in order to prevent the evacuation of illegal Jewish outposts in the West Bank and spent six months under house arrest.

Last year the Shin Bet sought to place Ettinger under administrative detention, but State Prosecutor Shai Nitzan denied the request. Instead, a restraining order was issued that prohibited him from being in Jerusalem and the West Bank.

Meir Kahane was the founder of the ultra-nationalist Kach party, which was outlawed in 1988 after serving for four years in the parliament, for being racist and anti-democratic.

Kahane, who was killed by an Arab gunman in New York in 1990, was arrested dozens of times in the United States and Israel for planning and carrying out domestic terrorism attacks throughout 1970s and 1980s.

He had spread his anti-Arab and nationalist radical ideology, among others supporting the transfer of Arabs in Israel to Arab countries in exchange for Jewish population from Arab countries, and advocating for a religious rather than a democratic state. This ideology stands in the foundation of Jewish extremist organizations.

The Ha'aretz daily also reported on Monday that the arrest is connected to a recent government decision to increase pressure against Jewish extremist militants on Sunday.

The decision came amid the deadly attack overnight Thursday in the Palestinian village of Duma in the West Bank, in which it is suspected that two Jewish extremist set fire to a house, killing an 18 year-old Palestinian baby and critically injuring his parents and brother.

The defense echelon fears an escalation in the area following the attack. A Palestinian youth was killed in clashes between Palestinians and Israeli security forces the following day in the West Bank.

With that, a Molotov cocktail on Monday was thrown at an Israeli vehicle traveling in Jerusalem near the entrance, moderately injuring a 27 year-old Israeli woman and lightly injuring a man in his thirties, as tensions continue to rise in the capital as well as the West Bank, with nearly daily violent incidents. Enditem