Hate From Within
Aliyah from former Soviet Union brings a surprise — anti-Semitism.
ARIEL FINGUERMAN AND ELANA SHAP
Jewish Telegraphic Agency
Jerusalem
S
ynagogues defaced by swastikas in B'nai
Brak? Graves vandalized in Beit Slaemesh? A
teenager harassed for being a Jew on her way
to school in Netivot?
Such cases may seem far-fetched, but they all
occurred in the Jewish state. According to the
Information Center for Victims of Anti-Semitism in
Israel, a nongovernmental organization, there have
been some 500 such incidents in Israel during the past
three years.
"The Russian-language newspapers in Israel print a
story on an and-Semitic incident every week, and at
every police station in the country at least one anti-
Semitic case is registered," says Zalman Gilichinsky,
director of the information center.
It's ironic, he adds, that some victims who are immi-
grants from the former Soviet Union have come all the
way to Israel to experience anti-Semitic aggression for
the first time.
Until last month, the Israeli government virtually
ignored such incidents. However, recent articles in
Yediot Achronot and Ha'aretz have helped place the issue
on the national agenda.
In a June 22 Cabinet meeting, Justice Minister Yosef
"Tommy" Lapid told Prime Minister Ariel Sharon that
"neo-Nazis have arrived in the country." The following
day, Attorney General Elyakim Rubinstein ordered an
investigation into the matter.
The main focus of the investigation is a Russian-lan-
guage
0 0 Web site called the White Israeli Union.
According to their manifesto, the site's organizers are
"people who have pride in themselves and are sick of
living among the dirty bastards."
Photographs on the site, printed in Israeli newspa-
pers, include a destroyed Israeli flag and youngsters in
Israel Defense Forces' uniforms offering Nazi-style
salutes. The site identifies Jews, Arabs, immigrants
from Muslim republics of the former Soviet Union and
foreign workers as "enemies."
The site urges racist sympathizers to enlist in Israeli
army combat units so they can murder as many Arabs
as possible.
Anti-Semitism also is surfacing in other Israeli ven-
ues: Arbat, a bookstore with branches across Israel, sells
books imported from Moscow with titles such as The
Holocaust Myth and Jewish Fascism in Russia.
Documenting Hate
When Gilichinsky, 38, decided to make aliyah from
the Soviet Union 15 years ago, he never imagined he
would be dealing with this phenomenon in the Jewish
state. Today he divides his time between teaching
Judaism to new immigrants and coordinating a team of
10 other volunteers.
Efraim Zuroff, director of the Simon Wiesenthal
Center in Israel, describes anti-Semitic acts in Israel as
an "aberration." But his organization doesn't monitor
such cases.
"Anyway, this is not like anti-Semitism in other parts
of the world," he says. "Here there is not a danger that
they will reach power."
Gilichinsky not only monitors the incidents, but
helps victims take their cases to police and follow them
up.
He says the perpetrators of anti-Semitism in Israel
almost always are Russian-speaking youth who are not
Jewish, though some are the descendants of Jews.
In a great majority of cases, the victims are elderly
Russian Jewish immigrants.
"They are more unprotected and easily recognized by
the anti-Semites," Gilichinsky says.
The most prominent institutions in Israel that moni-
tor anti-Semitism take a cautious approach to
Gilichinsky's organization. Roni Stauber, coordinator of
an annual Tel Aviv University report on worldwide
anti-Semitism, says he doesn't plan to include Israel
among the 30 countries monitored.
According to Laura Kam, a local spokeswoman for
the Anti-Defamation League, it's a "marginal phenom-
enon, a product of discontented youth who face prob-
lems linked to their condition as non-Jews in the coun-
try.
"We think that the people who give publicity to
these incidents are using them for a political agenda —
they want to change the Law of Return," which guar-
antees Israeli citizenship not just to Jews but to their
children and grandchildren, she says.
Gilichinsky admits that's true: He says he favors an
immediate change to the Law of Return to prevent
immigrants who are not Jewish from entering the
country.
"This law was created to increase the Jewish popula-
tion in Israel, but today it has the opposite effect and it
is increasing the numbers of non-Jews," Gilichinsky
says.
But he rejects the idea that neo-Nazism in Israel is a
product of bad treatment that young non-Jewish
immigrants allegedly suffer.
"If we followed that logic, the anti-Semites should be
attacking Israelis and not other immigrants," he says.
"Throughout history, Jews were always blamed for
anti-Semitism. Now we cannot point to the Jewish
state as the cause of this evil." ❑
Progress Possible?
Killing of Saddam's sons may aid regional stability, Israel backers say.
MATTHEW E. BERGER
Jewish Telegraphic Agency
Washington
sraeli officials are keeping mum on the killing
of Saddam Hussein's two sons, but develop-
ments in postwar Iraq could have clear reper-
cussions for Israel and the Middle East.
Uday and Qusay Hussein, who were killed Tuesday
in a gun battle with U.S. troops in Iraq, had little
direct involvement with policy toward Israel, but their
survival in postwar Iraq was seen as a destabilizing
remnant of a regime that had attacked Israel and
undermined U.S. interests in the region.
"Strengthening the U.S. position in the region is the
biggest boost for Israel, and any measure that does
that is positive," said Lenny Ben-David, a former
Israeli diplomat in Washington.
Their deaths will make the regime change look
more final in the eyes of many Iraqis. It also is likely
to embolden the Bush administration, which has
endured several weeks of bad publicity stemming from
erroneous intelligence information that formed part of
President Bush's argument for war.
That public relations problem, coupled with the
ongoing killing of American servicemen in Iraq, led
some to wonder whether the United States would pull
out its forces before Iraq had stabilized, which could
have negative repercussions for Israel.
I
The news of the pair's death was met with silence
from Israel and restrained enthusiasm in the American
Jewish community. While careful not to praise the
killings, Jewish leaders said the sons' demise could
expedite positive change in Iraq.
"We do believe that the removal of Saddam's regime
is a positive development and opens the way for
progress with Iraq," said Martin Raffel, associate exec-
utive director. of the Jewish Council for Public Affairs.
"If this development helps in building democracy to
Iraq, it will be positive."
Malcolm Hoenlein, executive vice chairman of the
Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish
Organizations, said that "psychologically, its very
important news."
"The most important will be when they get
Saddam," he said. "As long as he's out there, there will
be many who are still afraid."
An Israeli government spokesman said the govern-
ment had no comment. Israel succeeded in staying out
of the Iraq war, and has kept silent on developments
in the months that have followed.
"The United States does not need Israel's support
on this; if anything, it could be the opposite," Ben--
David said. "There's no reason to give the enemies of
the United States propaganda by letting Israel support
them on this."
Each of Hussein's sons played a distinctive role in
PROGRESS on page 18
7/25
2003
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