Anti-Semitic crimes fester within Israel

Anti-Semitic crimes fester within Israel

By Harry De Quetteville

LONDON SUNDAY TELEGRAPH

March 5, 2007

http://www.washingtontimes.com/world/20070304-100105-3458r.htm

JERUSALEM -- When police arrested six youths on suspicion of burning Jewish

prayer parchments and flags bearing the Star of David last month, it

appeared to be the kind of anti-Semitic hate crime that plagues many parts

of the world.

But this time, the young suspects were Israeli, and the site of their

rampage was the run-down town of Bat Yam, south of Tel Aviv. For the head of

the police unit investigating the attacks, it was the latest in a series of

anti-Semitic incidents in which swastikas have been sprayed on synagogues

and graveyards desecrated within the Jewish state.

"We are talking about 'troublers' of Israel," said the local chief

superintendent, Meir Cohen, after taking the youths into custody. "They hate

anything related to the Jewish faith. We are trying to find all of the

places they have vandalized."

While Israeli organizations such as the Jewish Agency maintain a

vigilance against anti-Semitic attacks beyond Israel's borders, the

phenomenon of anti-Semitism inside Israel is hardly monitored.

Zalman Glichevsky runs an organization called Dmir for victims of

anti-Semitism within the country. "The government knows very well that there

is a problem, but they don't react," he said.

"It's like talking to a wall, they want to brush this problem under the

carpet. Israel has been created as a refuge for Jews, but when it turns out

that anti-Semitism is here, too, the refuge is ruined."

Mr. Glichevsky said about 500 Jews in Israel turned to Dmir last year

after encountering such hate crimes and the numbers were growing. He linked

its rise to the mass immigration to Israel from Russia since the collapse of

the Soviet Union.

Marina Niznik, a Tel Aviv specialist on immigration, said Russians now

comprise about 1.3 million, or 20 percent, of Israel's 6.5 million

population. Under Israel's immigration policy, anyone with a single Jewish

grandparent qualifies for citizenship, leaving some new immigrants feeling

only tenuously Jewish.

The policy is controversial, said Mrs. Niznik. "Many Russians came to

Israel for economic reasons and now face huge cultural differences. Many

children feel left out and, as a reaction, form extremist views."

Her research has shown that many youths of Russian origin in Israel feel

more Russian than Jewish. "There's no doubt that the sense of Russianness is

very strong for people here," she said.

"In Russia, there's no concept of multiculturalism or political

correctness, and there's a very strong Christian church. As a result, a lot

of Israelis are afraid of the Russian ghetto in Israel."

At the Stephen Roth Institute for the Study of Contemporary

Anti-Semitism in Tel Aviv, its director, Dina Porat, called for calm over

the highly sensitive subject.

"We have no data on anti-Semitism in Israel and don't study it. But our

general impression is that this is not much to write home about," she said.

At Dmir, however, Mr. Glichevsky insists that this attitude is

complacent, and that incidents such as the repeated break-ins and obscene

graffiti in synagogues in the southern town of Arad since the beginning of

the year mark a serious escalation of the problem.

"Anti-Semitism in Israel is now taking a much more radical form," he

said. "It's taking the form of neo-Nazism."