Israel court extends detention of extremist Jewish leader

An Israeli court Tuesday ordered the head of a Jewish extremist group to be kept in detention after his arrest following the burning to death of a Palestinian baby, judicial sources said.

The court in Nazareth, northern Israel, prolonged the incarceration of Meir Ettinger until at least Sunday, the sources said.

Ettinger, whose grandfather Meir Kahane founded the racist anti-Arab movement Kach, was arrested on Monday "because of his activities in a Jewish extremist organisation", a spokesman for the Shin Bet internal security service told AFP.

Police said Ettinger, who is aged around 20, was suspected of "nationalist crimes" but did not accuse him of direct involvement in last week's firebombing of a Palestinian home in the occupied West Bank, in which a toddler was burned to death.
Source: AFP