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Three of the eight suspects (photo: Flash90)
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One of the suspected members of the neo-Nazi ring in Petah Tikva
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Another suspected member of the neo-Nazi gang
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| By Israel Insider staff September 10, 2007 |
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Officials are having trouble deciding how to handle the case of eight suspected neo-Nazis, all teenage immigrants from the former Soviet Union, according to the local papers. The suspects are being with incitement to racism, causing grievous bodily harm and various other crimes because under Israeli law neo-Nazi activity is not illegal.
The suspects, who are currently being held in custody, are expected to be indicted today.
Having reportedly immigrated to Israel by way of remote connections to Judaism, the boys are said to identify as Christians.
MK Zevulun Orlev of the National Union-National Religious Party has long pushed for a bill that would permit the revocation of citizenship and the deportation of neo-Nazis, according to Haaretz. Many other MKs from across the political spectrum, like MK Colette Avital of Labor, support taking a firmer stance on neo-Nazism.
Orlev also called on the government to amend the Law of Return to exclude those who are not strongly bound to their Jewish identity. Currently anyone who has a Jewish grandparent can become a citizen of Israel.
"When it comes to a grandchild, we are talking about the second generation of non-Jews," Orlev says, "and that person's distance from Judaism is great ... It undermines the Jewish character of the state."
However there was less support for changing the law.
"If we do not let grandchildren immigrate, it will hurt thousands of people who grew up in Jewish families, with a clear connection to Judaism, and who suffered from anti-Semitism," MK Zeev Elkin of Kadima said.
Public Security Minister Avi Dichter urged officials to take use the incident as an opportunity to reflect on Israeli society and what the state could do to help eliminate such problems from developing.
"Israeli society must ask not only where these youths made a mistake, but also where we made a mistake in absorbing them and in their education," Dichter said.
Yisrael Beytanu Chairman Avigdor Lieberman, himself an immigrant from the former Soviet Union, emphasized that the group is not representative of the Russian-speaking immigrant population, and urged officials not to amend the law.
"To change any law because of one or two gangs, or ten youths, is also totally unreasonable," the Jerusalem Post quoted Lieberman as saying.
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