VIDEO - "Israel, as a society, failed in educating the youths discovered to be neo-Nazis," Prime Minister Ehud Olmert said in response to the arrest of eight Petach Tikva teenagers for membership in a neo-Nazi cell.
The youths are suspected of attacking innocent by-standers, including minorities such as gays, foreign workers, and homeless people, as well as men wearing kippot.
A video documenting the youths' neo-Nazi activities were screened at Sunday's cabinet meeting, and the ministers were shocked by the chilling images.
"We saw the appalling documentation of violence for its own sake, suspected – and I stress, suspected – of being motivated by neo-Nazi ideology," Olmert said in a statement. "I'm sure that no one in Israel is indifferent to these scenes, which demonstrate that we as a society have failed in educating these youths and distancing them from crazy and dangerous ideologies."
"These incidents must be handled with the utmost severity, to create the proper deterrence so they are not repeated. However, I call on the public in this case: Let us not criminalize an entire population nor make generalizations. There is no need to seek solutions that apply to entire populations. I am sure the police and judicial system will handle this in the most fitting manner," Olmert said.
Ministers: Don't scapegoat
All but one of the group members are non-Jewish immigrants from the former Soviet Union, who arrived in Israel via the Law of Return. As such, the police's youth division, who uncovered the affair, referred to it as a complicated and sensitive issue.
Absorption Minister Yaakov Edri also severely condemned the suspects. "They must be punished to the full extent of the law," he said.
Edri stressed that this was a peripheral phenomenon. "Most Russian youths are normative, and have integrated well in
the state's systems. Many serve in the IDF and contribute to Israel's strength. We must not vilify an entire population based on the behavior of one extremist group."
Minister Avigdor Lieberman (Yisrael Beitenu) called the affair "a disgrace to the Jewish people and the State of Israel. The suspicions are nauseating and must be punished severely, but it's important to avoid a smear campaign and the vilification of an entire population of immigrants from the former Soviet Union."
On Sunday the suspects' remand was extended by three days.