Israeli Police Arrest Homegrown Neo-Nazis

JERUSALEM — Israel was in shock yesterday after police said they had broken up a gang of homegrown neo-Nazis who praised Adolf Hitler, attacked Orthodox Jews, and surrounded themselves with the paraphernalia of white supremacists.

Police arrested eight young men in their late teens and early 20s a month ago in the central town of Petah Tikvah. What the investigating officers found so disturbing was only released yesterday.

"It is difficult to believe that Nazi ideology sympathizers can exist in Israel, but it is a fact," the police officer who led the investigation, Revital Almog, said.

The men, all recently arrived Russian immigrants who are nominally Jewish through a grandparent, were found to have filmed themselves giving Nazi salutes and carrying out attacks on homosexuals, non-whites, and observant Jews.

Several were found to have an "88" tattoo, which is meant to symbolize the phrase "Heil, Hitler," as "H" is the eighth letter of the alphabet.

During police interviews, one said they vowed to "kill them all," referring to people outside the frame of white supremacism. The ringleader, 19-year-old Eli Boynatov, who styled himself "Eli the Nazi," was taped denouncing his own grandfather as a "jewboy" and vowing not to have any children because it would continue the "jewboy bloodline." The gang also desecrated two synagogues by spraying them with Nazi swastikas.

While the occasional individual Nazi sympathizer has been found in Israel, this cell was the largest group ever uncovered.

Two members of the Israeli Parliament, Zvulun Orlev and Colette Avital, responded promptly saying they would propose legislation outlawing neo-Nazi activity.

As it stands, the only laws the men broke appear to be crimes against violence. They are expected to be charged with what amounts to grievous bodily harm later this week.

Israeli TV showed grainy footage of people lying helpless on the floor while the gang kicked them. Police also found knives, explosives, and other weapons in the suspects' possession.

Amos Hermon, an official from the Jewish Agency, an organization that arranges for Jewish immigration to Israel, said: "A group of neo-Nazis who immigrated from the former Soviet Union express their frustration and disappointment with the establishment by the same means that were used against them."

Under Israeli law, a person can claim citizenship if a parent or grandparent has Jewish roots. This rule allowed many Soviet citizens with questionable ties to Judaism to reach Israel after the Soviet Union disintegrated.