Thursday, November 25, 2004

Russian anti-Semitism -- in Israel

The BBC reports on the Russian Olim returning to the FSU -- which I already discussed, here -- and points out another interesting phenomenon: the rise in anti-Semitism in Israel, coming mainly from non-Jewish Russian Olim:
The incidents include swastika graffiti on the walls of synagogues, and verbal and physical abuse...
[T]he Israeli Attorney General launched a criminal investigation into a neo-Nazi website which called itself the White Israeli Union, after pictures appeared of a man in an Israeli army uniform with his arm raised in a "Heil Hitler" salute.
But since then, other Russian language websites with similar content have appeared, with tasteless jokes about Jewish people and Holocaust denials.
One Russian Oleh says he has documented more than 500 cases of Russian anti-Semitic acts in Israel in the past year. Out of one million Olim, this represents a tiny minority -- but perhaps it's time the Jewish Agency started being a little more discriminating with the people they are encouraging to make Aliya?

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