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Last update - 10:15 16/09/2007
Jews are capable of acting like neo-Nazis
By Meron Rappaport
Tags: a

Last week, as all the Israeli television networks were broadcasting pictures of the "neo-Nazi" teenagers attacking random victims, public attention inevitably turned to the attackers. It is difficult to imagine a neo-Nazi group operating here, in the Jewish State. This combination of Jewish neo-Nazis would also seem inconceivable in other countries. That is why the story made the front pages in many newspapers the world over.

In Israel, the discussion immediately turned to the Law of Return, as if the phenomenon would disappear if only those Jews who are recognized as such by Jewish law [halakha] were allowed to enter Israel. This baseless argument is refuted by the fact that some of the neo-Nazi group's members are considered Jews according to halakha. And, sadly, the fact is that kosher Jews are also capable of acting like neo-Nazis.

This is undoubtedly a shocking phenomenon and the attackers, alongside the environment that bred this pattern of behavior, must be dealt with. But the victims also deserve attention. According to comments made by the attackers, most of their targets were foreign workers. Haaretz's Roni Singer-Heruti reported that the police mounted a concerted effort to locate the victims in order to strengthen the case against the attackers, but this effort was unsuccessful. None of the victims filed a complaint with the police. It seems that a foreign worker in Israel is more afraid of the police than of a gang of hooligans that beats him mercilessly. The hard work of the Immigration Police has apparently borne fruit.
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This is no surprise to anyone involved in the field. Noa Kaufman, the director of a clinic run by Physicians for Human Rights, says that foreign workers occasionally come to the clinic after taking a beating. Although the staff encourages them to file a complaint with the police, the workers are usually scared of doing so.

The fact that no one complained about these brutal attacks on foreign workers should trouble us even more because they occurred in public places. Even if the gang members made sure there were no eyewitnesses to the attacks, they probably left the victims bleeding at the scene. It is possible that passersby stumbled upon them, saw the beaten people and continued on their way.

Although the police demonstrated persistence in this case, the feeling remains that those without rights, the various "others," have no real address where they can seek protection here in Israel. Sometimes, it seems as though the authorities ignore the violence directed against these individuals. During the second intifada, several hundred people gathered around Jaffa's Hassan Bek Mosque following a terror attack and threw rocks at Muslim worshipers, who took cover in the building. Prominent among the rock throwers were Russian-speaking skinheads with tattoos. In my layman's eyes, they looked incredibly like neo-Nazis. Time and again they broke through the police lines and surrounded the mosque, hurling rocks at its windows. The policemen took note of them, but did nothing. At one stage, several of the skinheads lifted the police barriers and tossed them at the mosque and at the worshipers' cars. The police continued to look on with curiosity. No one was arrested.

Even if there is no connection between those skinheads and the group in Petah Tikva, the latter could have learned from the police's behavior in Jaffa that those meant to uphold law and order would not be greatly upset by violence against the "others." Perhaps those skinheads did not salute with an upraised arm. Perhaps they did not venerate Hitler. But they venerated violence against those weaker than them, and this is just as bad.

Until Israeli society begins seriously combatting this dark racism, it will continue to regard the "neo-Nazis" as aliens who suddenly landed here. Public opinion will continue to believe that if we only send them back to the distant planet from whence they came, everything will be resolved. This is really not the case.

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  1.   EVERYONE has a dark side 10:41  |  sofie 16/09/07
  2.   THE MORE OR THE LESS JEWS, NEO-NAZI? 10:44  |  indrajaya 16/09/07
  3.   the author is a bigot 10:58  |  joe 16/09/07
  4.   Israel could teach classic Nazis a thing or two 11:28  |  Natallie Durson 16/09/07
  5.   Truth Is Simple look Into the mirror 12:26  |  Francois 16/09/07
  6.   Well, what do you expect? 12:32  |  Josh Goldman 16/09/07
  7.   This guy still allowed to write articles? 12:42  |  Danny - Israeli one 16/09/07
  8.   #3, yes he writes pretty authoritively 12:59  |  Danny - Israeli one 16/09/07
  9.   #4, yes they could 13:03  |  Danny - Israeli one 16/09/07
  10.   Hey Meron 13:04  |  Danny - Israeli one 16/09/07
  11.   Rappaport you write "and sadly......... 13:42  |  Mary 16/09/07
  12.   This is a very strange article 13:48  |  Mark B. 16/09/07
  13.   The author is 100% correct 13:56  |  Marlene N. 16/09/07
  14.   Jews? According to the reformed, alone 14:13  |  Binyamin Dissen 16/09/07
  15.   israel even has a neo-nazi newspaper 14:14  |  Herbert Kaine 16/09/07
  16.   #13, yea exactly the same thing 14:37  |  Danny - Israeli one 16/09/07
  17.   to sofie 14:39  |  sophia 16/09/07
  18.   Beyond "Good and Evil" There Is Only Evil 14:50  |  Ovadiah ben Avraham 16/09/07
  19.   Israeli Leftists Have To Be Anti-Nazis Squared 14:50  |  Rowan Berkeley 16/09/07
  20.   iasraeli police is famous for being antiarab and racist 14:58  |  cristina 16/09/07
  21.   Israel is a neo-naze state all in all 15:13  |  Marilyn 16/09/07
  22.   #21, work those lies 15:29  |  Danny - Israeli one 16/09/07
  23.   Enough to decline the Nazi word it is boring!!!!!!! 15:47  |  Alex 16/09/07
  24.   Vulnerability 15:55  |  Edith 16/09/07
  25.   yes they can 16:00  |  ravi 16/09/07
  26.   #21 more fun with marylin at the vituperation centre of oz 16:18  |  victor hardman 16/09/07
  27.   RE: Israeli police is famous for being antiarab 16:42  |  Jacques 16/09/07
  28.   re #21 check your numbers Danny, before accusing others of lies 16:52  |  Wouter 16/09/07
  29.   #20 CHRISTina do you speak from experience 16:59  |  Ari ben Yisrael 16/09/07
  30.   Danny`s source: some nrs by MACCSL about cluster bombs 17:11  |  Wouter 16/09/07
  31.   to #4, #5, #6, #13, #20, #21 17:20  |  Sofie 16/09/07
  32.   no4 Natalie Durson "Israel could teach the Nazi" 17:34  |  H 16/09/07
  33.   this article 17:39  |  scanadu 16/09/07
  34.   Attitudes and demonstrations 17:56  |  Jim 16/09/07
  35.   Jews ? 18:13  |  charles 16/09/07
  36.   #6 re: Josh Goldman 18:23  |  Jim 16/09/07
  37.   Hey Rappaport These were not Jews 18:23  |  Hilda 16/09/07
  38.   rappaport`s jewish nazis 18:37  |  elliot 16/09/07
  39.   # 17 Sophia 18:52  |  Jim 16/09/07
  40.   # 22 israeli one 19:09  |  Jim 16/09/07
  41.   # 26 Jacques 19:17  |  Jim 16/09/07
  42.   These Russian neo-nazis must be sent out of Israel NOW... 19:26  |  Luis 16/09/07
  43.   Anyone can act like Nazis 19:29  |  Mark Lincoln 16/09/07
  44.   Glass Houses and Bricks 19:40  |  Tony Anthony 16/09/07
  45.   JEWISH NAZIS I 20:00  |  JOJO 16/09/07
  46.   JEWISH NAZIS II 20:09  |  JOJO 16/09/07
  47.   indrajaya @ #2 20:47  |  akiva P 16/09/07
  48.   Francois of gay Paris... 21:00  |  akiva P 16/09/07
  49.   Rowan Berkeley, agreed. 21:11  |  akiva P 16/09/07
  50.   Edith o Belgium 21:19  |  akiva P 16/09/07
  51.   "vituperation centre of oz" 21:23  |  akiva P 16/09/07
  52.   Jacques of Adelaide SA 21:26  |  akiva P 16/09/07
  53.   The author needs physician 21:38  |  Gene 16/09/07
  54.   Can anyone explain why there should be no neo-Nazi type groups in 21:59  |  Raul 16/09/07
  55.   to "Jim" 22:14  |  Sofia 16/09/07
  56.   to akiva P: 22:25  |  jacques 16/09/07
  57.   remove the neo 23:32  |  margaret 16/09/07
  58.   margaret, you have a christian name,... 00:07  |  akiva P 17/09/07
  59.   Count me in....sorry,. NOT. 00:08  |  akiva P 17/09/07
  60.   # 46 JOJO 00:09  |  JIm 17/09/07
  61.   # 2 indrajaya 00:22  |  Jim 17/09/07
  62.   # 50 akiva P 00:40  |  Jim 17/09/07
  63.   # 55 Sophia 01:02  |  Jim 17/09/07
  64.   ignorance 01:32  |  sweis Melbourne 17/09/07
  65.   if one calls Israelli police racist - one must also say the same 02:18  |  akiva P 17/09/07
  66.   jacques, over and over again until you get it right!.... 02:21  |  akiva P 17/09/07
  67.   Those neo-Nazis, area a product of your society! 02:26  |  Sharif Hafez 17/09/07
  68.   If Racism Is A Component Of Nazism, Then... 02:38  |  chet 17/09/07
  69.   Indeed Raul 02:59  |  Mark Lincoln 17/09/07
  70.   We have them here too Marilyn 03:03  |  Mark Lincoln 17/09/07
  71.   Israeli racism 03:06  |  Mark 17/09/07
  72.   Israeli racism 03:07  |  Mark