On November 13, 2002 a protest demonstration took place opposite the Jewish Agency building in Jerusalem (48 King George St). Those taking part in the action voiced their demands to the Jewish Agency’s leadership and other official personalities in charge of repatriation issues that they stop the practice of increasing at any price the number of repatriates. This detrimental policy, according to the demonstrators, was to blame for the wave of anti-Semitic actions that has swept Israeli cities. On that same day, the newspaper Nash Yerusalim published a report that several streets in the Beit haKerem neighborhood were befouled by swastikas. Furthermore, in late September of 2002, a report circulated in the Israeli press about the arrest in Armon haNatsiv of three juveniles, recent immigrants from the CIS, who had “decorated their neighborhood with swastikas and inscriptions in the style of ‘Death to the Jews’ and ‘Hitler’” (Nash Yerusalim, 25/9/2002). This time the complaint lodged by the inhabitants of the neighborhood, as well as the press publications, forced the police to take action. But how many similar cases do not make the press and thus do not become deserving of police attention? Of course, there are the “showcase” excesses, such as the drawing of swastikas, the burning and desecration of Jewish cemeteries and religious buildings. The contagion of anti-Semitism, however, has also other less conspicuous but no less detestable manifestations.
Michael E., who had turned to the Information and Support Center for Victims of Anti-Semitism, told us the following story:
“In Netivot where we live, many new repatriates send their children to religious schools. We registered our daughter Julia in a secular school. In the minibus that drives the pupils to school she was the only Jewish girl. On that basis her schoolmates started to harass her on her way to school, only calling her ‘Sar-r-r-r-ah’ with the French pronunciation of the ‘r’. In our nightmares we would not imagine such a thing.”
Elya B. arrived in this country from Leningrad thirty years ago. There, her characteristically Jewish appearance made her an object of unending abuse. After arriving as a young girl in Israel, Elya married, brought up her children, and became a grandmother. The anti-Semitic scenes from her Soviet past seemed to her somewhat unreal and hard to believe that they had really happened to her. Her memory was refreshed by the reality of her surroundings. In the past the two years, groups of juveniles, recent olim, have made a habit of gathering near Elya’s house in Tel-Aviv. According to Elya’s words, Russian invectives have become the acoustic background of her life. Sometimes she feels as if she had not been living in Israel for thirty years. One time she could not refrain from making a remark to a group of young girls who were shouting in foul language. Then she heard the answer, “Beat it, you dirty kike!”
“I have no words to express my pain and despair, because that is the very reason I left Russia, …” says Elya.
Shlomo of Jerusalem went for a holiday to see friends in Petach-Tiqua. After sitting up late at his hosts’ place, he rushed as fast as he could to catch the last bus back to Jerusalem. Despite his hurry, he noticed in amazement the dramatic increase of the number of Russian-speaking drunks in the streets of the city. All of a sudden, a blond-haired face, reeking of alcohol, appeared on Shlomo’s way. “Give me a cigarette,” said the face to him in Hebrew. “I don’t smoke,” answered Shlomo in Hebrew, and quickly ran on. “Then at least lend me a kike tie,” the face shouted to him from behind in Russian. “The kike tie will cost you dearly,” Shlomo suddenly turned to him. The face, not expecting such a turn of events, suddenly vanished into the darkness. Shlomo had been a sportsman in heavyweight wrestling for many years. “I thought, I’ll miss the bus but I’ll teach the scoundrel a good lesson.”
On November 21, 2002, Sofia Lovshitz, a resident of Jerusalem, came to the Center. On that day a bloody terrorist attack had been committed in a number 20 bus in the Jerusalem neighborhood of Kiriat Menakhem. Sofia, a schoolteacher, was called to the school immediately after the incident because parents of some of her pupils were among the victims. The passengers in the bus by which she was going to work were listening with somber faces to the radio news-report from the scene of the attack. Everybody was silent. As the bus made a stop on one of the bus stops, suddenly a shout rang out in Russian: “They don’t kill enough of you Jews! Too few! They should kill more!” A middle-aged woman was shouting this. She was standing near the bus doors and got off immediately. The bus started. The passengers, Israelis, startled at first by the unintelligible shout, continued to listen to the radio broadcast. Only one elderly repatriate lady, who had watched that scene, expressed her indignation by breathing out: “Nazi woman.” We, at the Center, had already heard stories of Russian-speaking immigrants voicing their satisfaction with the killing of Jews in terrorist attacks.
In view of the significant increase of the number of anti-Semitic actions in the world, the Israeli government and the Jewish Agency decided to launch an information campaign. Among other things, a Government Internet site was created to track anti-Semitic excesses all over the world. The site (called Antisemitism) really is impressive. Apart from the continually renewed news summaries of events taking place on this subject and the headings “write to us,” Internet users have access to a huge archive of relevant information. But in vain will the user search there for reports about anti-Semitic excesses that have occurred in the State of Israel.
Our Center sent to the new site ample factual material collected by us about anti-Semitism in Israel. Some time later, we received an answer: “Thank you very much for your interest in our site. We know that anti-Semitic manifestations occur, unfortunately, even in Israel. However, we pursue a policy of informing of anti-Semitic actions that occur only abroad.” Needless to say, our material was not published. The policy of hushing up is not news to us. We then turned our attention to the greeting placed on the site by President Moshe Katzav addressed to Internet visitors. This greeting talks of the grave and tragic chapters throughout our people’s history, the solution to which was the founding of the State of Israel. The letter also points to the persistent dangers of anti-Semitism and the necessity to be informed about the developments on this issue. To summarize, the President calls on the readers to take part in the struggle against Jew-hatred in all of its manifestations.
On the day of Moshe Katzav’s election as President we sent him our congratulations along with the investigation report about the phenomenon of anti-Semitism in Israel. We had hoped that the President would deem necessary to condemn this shameful and absurd phenomenon and would help to uproot it. However, after a few weeks, we received a phone call from an assistant from the presidential staff who said that the subject of our message was outside the scope of President’s of activities. After reading the above-mentioned heartfelt words of Moshe Katzav, we decided to try once more to attract his attention to the phenomenon of anti-Semitism in Israel. This time we published our message in the Jerusalem newspaper Kol ha Ir (1/01/02).
The answer from the President’s office was published in the same newspaper (1/2/02):
“In answer to Zalman Gilichenski’s letter I would like to point out that the President considers very seriously all anti-Semitic actions all over the world, the number of which has been on the rise recently. The President does not doubt that the phenomena like the painting of swastikas and the desecration of cemeteries in Israel deserve the condemnation and attention of the authorities responsible for these matters. I assure Mr. Gilichenski and other readers of your newspaper that this subject ranks high on the President’s current agenda and enjoys his full attention.
-Talia Lador-Parsher, adviser to the President on Diaspora issues.”
The Center’s activists, reassured by the above-mentioned answer, decided to bother the President with the following message:
“To the President of the State of Israel Mr. Moshe Katzav
Mr. President:
1. Above all, we thank you for your attention to our previous message. We send you our informative bulletin devoted to anti-Semitism in Israel. Your reply to our message has likewise found a place in it.
2. May we remind you that our message to you was inspired by your greeting to the visitors to the official Internet site tracking anti-Semitic actions around the world. The site’s administration refused to publish our numerous reports about manifestations of anti-Semitism in Israel, reports that we have sent to you. Our movement’s activists and many other citizens think that a vital necessity has matured to create an Internet site informing about anti-Semitic actions in Israel. In this context, we would be grateful for help in building and supporting such a site.
3. We have a special request for you, even if you will not be unable to help build the site and formulate its contents, in which case we will act on our own. Could you, nevertheless, please send us an explanation of your opinion on the manifestations anti-Semitism in Israel addressed to the visitors to our future site, similar to your greeting on the site devoted to anti-Semitism abroad. Needless to say, before that you will be able to inform yourself about the site’s contents.”
Here is the President’s response Number 2.
“Dear Mr. Gilichenski:
Thank you for your letter from July 6, 2002, addressed to President Moshe Katzav.
As was already said in the previous letter to you, the President is troubled by the increasing phenomenon of anti-Semitism in the world and likewise condemns any actions with any anti-Semitic tinge in Israel.
Unfortunately, the President is unable to help you with your other requests.
Talia Lador-Pirsher, the President’s adviser on Diaspora issues.” (See the entire correspondence with the presidential staff).
We have created the Internet site on our own, and unfortunately, the weighty Presidential words are absent from it. We have called the site “Pogrom.” This word comes to mind ever too often, if one ponders over our situation…
Zalman Gilichenski, project manager