www.nytimes.com/aponline/world/AP-Israel-Neo-Nazis.html
Article Tools Sponsored By By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS Published: September 10, 2007 Filed at 4:26 am ET JERUSALEM (AP) -- Police said Sunday they have broken up a cell of young Israeli neo-Nazis accused of a string of brutal racist and anti-Semitic attacks, videos of which were played on television to a stunned national audience.
While Israel has experienced isolated incidents of anti-Semitism in the past, police spokesman Micky Rosenfeld said the arrests were the first time an organized cell has been discovered. The eight youths, who immigrated to Israel as children, were arrested over the past two months in connection with at least 15 attacks against religious Jews, foreign workers from Asia, drug addicts, the homeless and gays. A court decided Sunday to keep the suspects in custody on assault and vandalism charges. They did not identify themselves as Jews and their families had come to Israel to escape hardships in the former Soviet Union, police said. Under the Israeli ''law of return,'' a person can claim automatic citizenship if a parent or grandparent has Jewish roots. Authorities say that formula allowed many Soviets with questionable ties to Judaism to immigrate here after the Soviet Union disintegrated. About 1 million Soviets have moved here since the early 1990s, making up a significant part of Israel's 7 million citizens. Olmert warned that the acts of the few should not tarnish the great achievements of the Russian immigrants, who include doctors, professors, scientists and Cabinet ministers. Cabinet Minister Eli Yishai of the ultra-Orthodox Shas party said he would propose taking away the suspects' citizenship. Ironically, Israel doesn't specifically have a hate crimes law, and the case has also drawn calls for new legislation.
Anti-Defamation League, a US-based group that fights anti-Semitism, and Israel's Yad Vashem Holocaust memorial. The young men covered their faces with their shirts during the court hearing Sunday, revealing Nazi-themed tattoos on their arms. Some of the men had tattoos of the number ''88,'' code for ''Heil Hitler'' because ''H'' is the eighth letter of the alphabet. Others wore tattoos of Celtic crosses -- a symbol adopted by white supremacists -- and barbed wire fences. The gang documented its activities in detail on film and in photographs. Israeli TV stations showed grainy footage of the gang attacking victims with their fists, feet, buckets and bottles, leaving blood-splattered floors in their wake. The youths, whose faces were blurred or covered with Nazi insignia, also posed with German flags and giving the Nazi salute. Authorities also found knives, spiked balls, explosives and other weapons in their possession, Rosenfeld said. Police discovered the ring after investigating the desecration of two synagogues that had been sprayed with swastikas in the central Israeli city of Petah Tikva more than a year ago, Rosenfeld said. Police computer experts determined the group maintained contacts with neo-Nazi groups abroad, and materials seized include a German-language video about neo-Nazis in the US The group leader was identified as Eli Boanitov, 19, of Petah Tikva -- known as ''Eli the Nazi,'' police said. Until we kill them all I will not rest,'' Boanitov was quoted as saying in a police statement.
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