Israeli police say they have broken up a gang of neo-Nazis who are accused of carrying out attacks on foreigners, gay people and religious Jews. The eight suspects, aged 16-21, are all Israeli citizens from the former Soviet Union. They were arrested a month ago, reported BBC News on Saturday. Police say searches of their homes yielded Nazi uniforms, portraits of Adolf Hitler, knives, guns and TNT. The arrests follow a year-long inquiry which began after a synagogue in Petah Tikva, a city east of Tel Aviv, was desecrated with graffiti of Nazi swastikas and the name of Nazi leader Adolf Hitler. Police say the gang members would target homosexuals, Jews who wore a skull cap and drug addicts. They sported tattoos popular with white supremacists - including the number 88, code for Heil Hitler because "H" is the eighth letter of the alphabet. "It is difficult to believe that Nazi ideology sympathisers can exist in Israel, but it is a fact," Revital Almog, the police official who led the investigation, told Israeli public radio. She said the gang would pick on someone who appeared unable to defend themselves and then attack. Gang members often filmed or photographed their violence. Footage of the attacks show people lying on the ground whilst being kicked by more than one assailant. In one clip a man is hit around the back of the head with a bottle. According to the Israeli daily newspaper Haaretz one video shows gang members surrounding a Russian drug addict as he admits to being a Jew. The youths then order him onto his knees to beg for forgiveness for being Jewish and a drug addict before viciously beating not only him, but also another man who tries to intervene. The suspects have admitted assaulting a number of people in Tel Aviv, most of them foreign workers. Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert expressed his horror at what he called "violence for the sake of violence." "I am sure that there is not a person in Israel who can remain indifferent to these scenes, which indicate that we too as a society have failed in the education of these youths," he said. Ref: BBC News (m)
Credit: GayNZ.com News Staff
First published: Monday, 10th September 2007 - 10:23am