Another Cell of Israeli Neo-Nazi's Arrested

Three of the eight Russian-Israeli suspects, who are accused in being members of a neo-Nazi cell, are seen during a court appearance in the central Israeli town of Ramle, Sunday, September 9, 2007. (AP Photo/Ariel Schalit)

9 September 2007

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The police on Sunday said they've cracked a cell of young Israeli neo-Nazis accused in a string of attacks on foreign workers, religious Jews, drug addicts and gays.

All the suspects are in their late teens or early 20s and have Israeli citizenship, police spokesman Micky Rosenfeld said.

"The level of violence was outrageous," Maj. Revital Almog, who investigated the case, told Israel's Army Radio.

A court decided Sunday to keep the young men in custody. They covered their faces with their shirts during the hearing, revealing their tattooed arms, and did not comment.

The gang documented its activities on film and in photographs. Israeli TV stations showed grainy footage of people lying helpless on floors while several people kicked them, and of a man getting hit from behind on the head with an empty bottle.

Gang member's Nazi salute, Photo courtesy of the Israeli police.

Police found knives, spiked balls, explosives and other weapons in the suspects' possession, Rosenfeld said. One photo that was seized showed one suspect holding an M16 rifle in one hand and in the other, a sign reading "Heil Hitler," he added.

The group planned its attacks, and its targets were foreign workers from Asia, drug addicts, homosexuals, punks and Jews who wore skullcaps. In one case they discussed planning a murder, Rosenfeld said, without providing details.

Some of the victims filed official complaints with police, and other victims were identified after police viewed the films and photos.

Under Israeli law, a person can claim citizenship if a parent or grandparent has Jewish roots. Authorities say that formulation allowed many Soviets with questionable ties to Judaism to immigrate here after the Soviet Union disintegrated. About 1 million Soviets moved here in the late 1980s and early 1990s.

Rosenfeld said all the suspects had "parents or grandparents who were Jewish in one way or another."

Israel doesn't specifically have a hate crimes law, and suspects in past cases have been tried as Holocaust deniers, he said.

Amos Herman, an official with the semiofficial Jewish Agency, called the gang a group of frustrated, disgruntled youths trying to strike at the nation's most sensitive core.

"We thought that it would never happen here, but it has and we have to deal with it," he said.

The Israeli’s Deny on this case, that their have been other cell’s of Neo-Nazi’s within Israel over the years.