I remember one boring afternoon in the 2000s when I looked up ‘Jewish Nazis’ online because of the sheer absurdity of the concept. (I had a worse sense of humor as an adolescent.) To my surprise, I found out about something called Patrol 36: a gang of pro‐Axis neofascists who were nevertheless citizens of the Zionist neocolony.

As the bourgeoisie devastated the Eastern Bloc in the late 1980s and throughout the ’90s, neofascism exploded in popularity. Neoliberalization along with harassment from neofascists caused approximately one million Russian Jews to settle in occupied Palestine hoping for a better life. Many of the earlier settlers loathed these newcomers as ‘unworthy’ competitors. Since anybody (except for Palestinians) with at least one Jewish grandparent is eligible for citizenship under the so‐called ‘law of return’, many people who were only legally ‘Jewish’ became citizens, too.

Some legally ‘Jewish’ youths felt more gentile than Jewish; the harassment that they faced from Jews disgruntled them. Hence, in 2005, Patrol 36 was born:

Kuzmin’s family migrated to Israel 10 years ago hoping for a better life free of discrimination. But Ivan still didn’t fit in. “There they called me things like dirty Jew… And here they called me stinky Russian.”

Despite having a grandmother who survived the Jewish Holocaust in Europe, Kuzmin joined other young immigrants in a neo[fascist] gang called Patrol 36, which regularly bashed people senseless. They were so proud of their actions they videotaped their attacks.

Pictured: One of the gang members performing a Fascist salute.

As laughworthy as the concept of ‘Jewish neo‐Nazis’ may seem, it is real, and they can be no less dangerous than their gentile counterparts:

The eight suspects, aged 16–21, are all Israeli citizens from the former Soviet Union. They were arrested a month ago [August 2007], but the news only emerged on Saturday. Police say searches of their homes yielded [Fascist] 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 [Fascist] swastikas and the name of [Fascist] leader Adolf Hitler.

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.

Tattoos

The eight accused, who include the group’s alleged leader, are all from Petah Tikva.

The gang members sported tattoos popular with white supremacists — including the number 88, code for Heil Hitler because “H” is the eighth letter of the alphabet.

“We believe that this is the main gang working in the area… the main gang that exists [under Zionism] that attempts to use Hitler’s ideology,” police spokesman Micky Rosenfeld told AFP news agency. Police say the gang members would target homosexuals, Jews who wore a skull cap and drug addicts, often video taping their attacks. “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.

Video tapes

The suspects have admitted assaulting a number of people in Tel Aviv, most of them foreign workers. Ms Almog said the gang would pick on someone who appeared unable to defend themselves and then attack. They often filmed or photographed the 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 […] 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.

(Emphasis original.)

Aside from assaulting innocents, some of the things that these youths said were just plain creepy:

During the investigation, police revealed chilling email correspondences between the cell members. In one message, Buanitov wrote: “Do you celebrate the Fuhrer’s birthday? On his birthday we will read out a few lines, swear allegiance to Hitler and to all the white people. We will guard the white race until the last drop of our blood.”

When one of the members was worried that the event might be spotted by a “[insert slur here]” who may report it to the police, Buanitov replied, “Let him see us, we’ll kill him.”

In a separate conversation Baniatov said, “I will never give up, I was a Nazi and will remain a Nazi. I won’t rest until we kill them all.” In another chat he stated, “I won’t have kids. My grandfather is half [insert slur here], so that this piece of trash doesn’t have ancestors with even the smallest percent of Jewish blood.”

Here is a recording of the gang members going to court, many with their shirts over their faces to hide their identities. (Another suspect, a twenty‐one‐year‐old soldier, fled before somebody could arrest him.) Then, a judge sentenced the accused to 1–7 years in jail. Since that was in November 2008, this means that they are all free now.

Many neocolonial officials and other apologists have glossed over Patrol 36 as nothing more than an isolated case. That may be, but Zalman Gilichinski, an activist who tried to draw attention to pro‐Axis neofascists in the neocolony, was unconvinced:

“There are several hundred neo‐Nazis in Israel, maybe more. Perhaps 100 perpetrate violent attacks,” says Zalman Gilichinski, a Torah instructor in Jerusalem who is not only the leading authority, but probably the only authority on the extent of neo‐Nazism in Israel.

“It’s hard to think of a city with a substantial population of [halachically] non‐Jewish Russian immigrants where there isn’t neo‐Nazi activity,” he says, adding that the leading venues for Nazi graffiti and street attacks are the Tel Aviv Central Bus Station, Haifa and its Krayot suburbs, and the Jerusalem neighborhoods of Armon Hatziv, Neveh Yaʻacov and Pisgat Zeʻev.

“We’re now getting about 250 calls a year about neo‐Nazi activity, and a third or more of these complaints have to do with violence,” he adds.

[…]

After Holocaust Remembrance Day in 2005, when a Russian immigrant youth was arrested for spraying [Fascist] graffiti in Beersheba, and an IDF soldier from Ariel was discovered to be wearing swastika tattoos, Gilichinski spoke about the problem on the radio, and Avital’s office contacted him. He showed the MK the material Damir had amassed on neo[fascist] activities here, and Avital convened the first of three Knesset committee hearings on the issue, all of which were attended by police representatives.

“I wanted the police to start dealing with the issue, but they came up with nothing at the meetings, they said there’s nothing to the issue, they know nothing, they’ve heard nothing,” says Avital. She instructed police to put together a report on the extent of neo‐Nazi activities, but this was never done, despite Gilichinski having provided them with “written evidence, names of Web sites, all the material imaginable,” she continues.

As late as last month, Avi Dichter, minister of internal security, sent a letter to Knesset Speaker Dalia Itzik, with a copy to Avital, in which he insisted that neo‐Nazism in Israel “was not important, that the police did a little research and nothing was happening, it wasn’t a trend, it wasn’t serious,” Avital adds.

In Gilichinski’s files is correspondence with various local police stations over complaints of neo‐Nazi and anti‐Semitic attacks. The police response often refers to the case being closed, with no explanation given; in most of these cases, the likelihood is that the perpetrators weren’t caught. At times, though, the police response is that no investigation was even opened. “Many times I made complaints to the police and got no response from them at all,” he notes.

While the occupation may have no citizens today who are European neofascists (not to be confused with Hebrew neofascists), Zionists have good reasons for ignoring the possibility: various reports in the media about European neofascists harming Jews would ruin the image of the ‘State of Israel’ as a Jewish utopia. Thus, we may never know the real extent of the problem. Whatever the case may be there, three facts remain indisputable: the occupation has welcomed Eurofascists repeatedly, has repeatedly supported Ukrainian neofascists and offers jobs to European neofascists.

It may be tempting to dismiss Patrol 36 as nothing more than a historical curiosity, but comparing how the occupation handled it with how it mishandles Palestinians remains useful: a neofascist gang that assaulted people for being Jewish, drug‐addicted, homosexual, or of colour was entitled to a trial, some anonymity, and only a few years in jail. It took the authorities two years to do anything about them. In contrast, a Palestinian child who never came close to harming anybody has no right to food, shelter, potable water, electricity, or even oxygen. The IOF waste no time massacring Palestinians of any age. Yet according to many Herzlians, Palestinians and Eurofascists are supposedly one and the same!

Let nobody deceive you: the occupation does not treat Palestinians like antisemitic neofascists. It treats neofascists much better than Palestinians!