"An association of persons, incorporated or unincorporated, that operates in an organized, systematic and ongoing pattern for the offense of offenses which, according to Israeli law, are of the type of crime or offenses
those listed in the First Addendum, with the exception of offenses of the type of felony listed in the Second Appendix; In this matter, there is no difference of kind:
(1) whether or not the members of the organization know the identity of the other members;
(2) If the composition of the members of the organization is fixed or changing;
(3) If such offenses are committed or are intended to be committed in Israel or outside of Israel, provided that they constitute offenses according to both Israeli law and the laws of the place where they were committed, or according to Israeli law, the penal laws of Israel apply to them even if they are not offenses under the laws of that place;".
The weight of the concern about organized crime, with its various degrees, should not be underestimated (see, for example, the words of Justice Procaccia in various applications Criminal 8793/04 State of Israel v. Kakun [33], October 20, 2004, at paragraph 7, and the words of Justice Hayut in various applications Criminal 8331/05 Gabbay v. State of Israel [34], September 7, 2005, at paragraph 6). A considerable effort - both national and international - is devoted to the fight against criminal networks that span the globe. Against this background, the United Nations Convention against Transnational Organized Crime (2000) was formulated [150], and as a result, the Combating Criminal Organizations Law was enacted in Israel , the purpose of which is to streamline the response to this new danger. The law considers the very activity of a criminal network to be a criminal offense, and it carries with it a severe penalty ranging from 10 to 20 years in prison (Section 2 of the Combating Criminal Organizations Law). This is in addition to criminal liability by virtue of any other legislation, which also carries a dimension of extreme severity where an offense was committed within the framework of a criminal organization (section 3 of the Combating Criminal Organizations Law). Section 1(3) of the Law, quoted above, reiterates the principles of the applicability of Israeli penal law, including the extension of the application in appropriate cases to acts committed outside the territory of Israel.