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CHAPTER SEVEN ORGANIZED CRIME IN ISRAEL Menachem Amir The Israeli Approach to Organized Crime Ain many places in the Western world, especially in the U.S., three features surrounded the issue of organized crime in Israel. First, the semantic squabbles about the definition of organized crime, mainly the failure to clarify the distinction between organized criminality and organized crime. Organized crime is one type of organized criminality. Organized criminality contains most of its characteristics such as duration, continuity, rationality, (division of labor, hierarchy). However, it lacks the monopolization aspect of organized crime-that is, the drive to gain exclusivity over markets or territories (Abadinsky, 1990; Amir, 1994; Cressey, 1972; Maltz, 1985; Bersten, 1990). Organized criminality can develop into organized crime, but not necessarily. Second, the erroneous identification of the concept of organized crime with that of the Italian-American Mafia. Thus, if the elements of American Mafia were not observed or assumed, the existence of organized crime was then denied, and its observed characteristics were called "serious criminality," "professional criminality ," or other terms that denote organized criminality. Third, organized crime was often looked upon as an ethnic phenomenon, especially in societies that absorb immigrant-ethnic groups (Bell, 1970; Homer, 1974; Ianni, 1984; for a rebuttal, see Lupsha, 1981 and 1983). Therefore, in Israel too, organized crime was conceived mainly as one avenue of acculturation and upward mobility into the host society. 121 ICE ‫ז‬ 122 CRIME AND CRIMINAL JUS The fourth feature in the del)ate over organized crime is the refusal of the official authorities to admit the existence of organized crime in Israel. Thus, as irl other places, it was the media, mainly newspaper investigating I·eportage, with the help of some academics that raised the issues related to the existence of organized crime, and maintained public awareness to this type of crime. The Media and C:ommissions Era of Organized C:rime in Israel This chapter will discuss the pllenomena of organized crime in r since the establishment of the ~ Israel as it developed historicall state in 1948. But alas, as we shall see later, only at the end of the , 1970s academics started to stud:v organized crime (Amir, 1978a 1986). Thus till then the characteristics of this type of crime could be revealed only through the meblem" requiring a planned policy to deal with it. The minister of police and the police denied publicly ven when the fact of its presence ~ the existence of organized crime , was presented to them. But covertly they heeded to public pres sures to study the phenomenon. :[ndeed an internal police commis sion known as the Buchner Commission was formed to "study serious ". crime .gain confirmed all the newspaper ~ This report (Buchner, 1986) and academic descriptions and analyses of organized crime. How )" ever, it added more data on the ori5anized import of tainted, ("black money for laundering, the organjzed thievery of agricultural prod ucts, machinery and livestock, organized fencing of stolen building materials , gold and electrical apI>liances. It also alluded to corrup 125 IOLOGY OF CRIME IN ISRAEL ‫ז‬ HE EPIDEMIOLOCY AND E ‫ז‬ tive arrangements between leading crime figures and local officials including those of the regulative agencies and the police. From the description of certain organized crime groups and their criminal activities we can learn about the social background of most of the members of these groups. Some are 1sraeli-born from the non-European ethnic groups, and were involved in organized criminality since the establishment of the state, in 1948. Until the 1950s they were engaged in black marketeering, fencing, and extortions that developed into protection rackets. Other members are second and third generation of immigrants mainly from Muslim countries (e.g., North Mrica or 1raq). This fact of continuity and durability of organization and activities led to theorizing in the U.S. and 1srael of organized crime as an ethnic and immigration phenomena (Abadinsky 1990, 53-58, as a summary and bibliography), rather than taking an economic perspective (e.g., 1anni and 1anni, 1980; Schelling, 1971; Smith, 1982) that can be applied to the 1sraeli scene, such as centralized and bureaucratized controlled economy as the main context for explaining organized crime activities. The importance of the Buchner internal report is in its recommendation , one of which resulted in the establishment of a special unit, termed "the unit for the investigation of serious crime." 1t has been responsible for the investigation of organized criminality, and what some of the members of the committee called organized crime. Some of the...

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