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US-Israeli Teen Convicted of Making Thousands of Bomb Threats Against Jews

Anti-Semitic incidents in the United States increased nearly 60 percent last year, with incidents occurring in all 50 states, according to the Anti-Defamation League (ADL), a US-based international Jewish non-governmental organization.
Sputnik

A court in Tel Aviv has convicted a teenager of dual US-Israeli nationality, for making thousands of bomb threats against airports and Jewish schools and community centers, most of them in the US, The Times of Israel wrote.

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Nineteen-year-old Michael Kadar was arrested in the Israeli town of Ashkelon in March 2017 as part of a joint investigation by Israeli and US authorities, including the FBI.

He was found guilty on hundreds of counts, including making more than 2,000 anonymous bomb threats against mostly Jewish community centers,  schools and synagogues in the United States, creating panic, marketing extortion services and earning around $240,000 in bitcoin from bomb threats.

"The goal of the defendant was to cause public panic, to send many emergency forces to the threatened area, to cause an urgent evacuation of the place, to conduct searches and scans and to create a media echo that would enhance the damage inherent in his actions," the court said.

Kadar will be sentenced later and faces possible extradition to the United States to face similar hate crime charges.

The threats from the Jewish dual US-Israeli teen had stoked fears of rising anti-Semitism in the United States.

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According to the Anti-Defamation League, there were 1,986 incidents of anti-Semitism, which included vandalism and physical assaults, recorded in the United States in 2017.

"These were acts of anti-Semitism. These threats targeted Jewish institutions and were calculated to sow fear and anxiety, and put the entire Jewish community on high alert," ADL’s head Jonathan Greenblatt said last year.

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