A-Infos (en) Israel, Petah-Tikva, We're not Nazis, we're punk-anarchists

The teenagers in Petah Tikva's Gan Yehonatan club stress that they are not 
Nazis. "We're punks!" they say. "People think all new immigrants are 
anti-Semites. That's not true at all," one of the teenagers says, referring to 
anti-Semitic incidents in town, like last year's desecration of a large 
synagogue. "We don't like the ultra-Orthodox but we wouldn't paint swastikas on 
synagogues either," he says. Some 150 young immigrants from the former Soviet 
Union frequent the Gan Yehonatan club in the afternoons. The purpose of the 
club is to keep the youths from drinking and hanging out in parks. The boys 
admit uncomfortably that they are familiar with the Nazi-Russian youth in Petah 
Tikva. "There are groups of neo-Nazis - not here at the club, though. They 
exist in every town in the country," says one youth.

Some of the youths regard Israelis with anger and distrust. They are a 
close-knit group, but complain that Israelis treat them with contempt and see 
them as stereotypes. Most of all, they say they don't belong. The reports of 
vandalism and attacks on ultra-Orthodox residents have intensified this feeling.

When asked what they know of Nazi and anti-Semitic groups, they act 
embarrassed. Gradually, however, they open up and talk about the "Nazi 
skinheads" and terror they impose on other groups.

'Good' and 'bad' skinheads

"You must distinguish between two groups of skinheads," one says. "There are 
good skinheads and Nazi skinheads, called boneheads." (Nazi skinheads are often 
called boneheads by traditionalist skinheads and Skinheads Against Racial 
Prejudice.)

"The boneheads shave their heads and wear white suspenders with jeans or 
military trousers, sometimes with a white collar," one boy says. Most of them 
are over 18 years old, some even serve in the military, and they advocate 
typical Nazi ideology, based on hatred of Jews and Israelis, he says.

"A few months ago, the boneheads held a ceremony to mark Hitler's birthday in 
one of the cemeteries," a boy says.

Irena, 18, from the central region, has spent some time with the Nazi boneheads.

"I was a skingirl - that's what you call the Nazi skinheads' girls," she says.

Irena's boyfriend was the group leader, dubbed the "Fuhrer."

"We were a bunch of immigrant Russian boys and girls, and we had a certain 
dress code. The boys usually shaved their heads and wore military pants.

"On weekends we'd meet in parks, where we'd drink and smoke and listen to Nazi 
music. Nazi music isn't Rammstein [a German band that incorporates elements of 
metal/hard rock, industrial metal and electronic music]," she says with a 
smile. Some evenings fights would break out between her group and others who 
met in the parks. Irena's boyfriend, the Fuhrer, was involved in fighting among 
the groups.

One group at odds with the Nazi skinheads is the "good" Nazi skinheads, as the 
youngsters call them. The good skinheads are not Nazis or Jew haters - "they 
are radical right wing Islamophobes who believe in the working class," a youth 
says.

There are many shaven heads among the good skinheads, who wear jeans, sometimes 
bleach-stained, red suspenders and red laces on their military boots. One boy 
says that he was beaten up once by the Nazi skinheads for wearing red 
suspenders. "The red symbolizes Communism to them, and the Communists defeated 
the Nazis," he says.

Most of the youths in Gan Yehonatan categorize themselves as punk-anarchists. 
"We, the punks, usually wear tight black trousers and various Mohawk hair 
styles," he says. "We also have metalists, who listen to heavy metal music, 
wear lots of earrings and rivets, army boots and are into piercing."

Some of them are convinced that the boneheads desecrated the big synagogue and 
tried to frame the punks.

After school, in the afternoons, the Gan Yehonatan group walks along the gravel 
path leading to the club in Petah Tikva. Several girls, some dressed in black, 
greet each other politely. Boys with thuggish expressions chain smoke and 
converse among themselves in Russian, dotted with Hebrew phrases.

The club provides the teenagers with activities to help them deal with their 
difficulties in creative ways. At least seven punk and rock bands have come out 
of the club, as well as a breakdance group. The club also has a music room, a 
carpentry workshop and a basketball court.

After the lights go out

Gan Yehonatan opened about three years ago, after a municipal committee headed 
by Nurit Tibi, director of the Beit Hila educational center, discovered that 
drinking and violence were prevalent among immigrant CSI youth. The committee 
decided to open a club in an old rundown building belonging to the Hashomer 
Hatzair youth movement, opposite the town's Yad Lebanim park.

It wasn't easy to reach the CSI youth, says youth activity coordinator Bella 
Alexandrov. But gradually they started coming and infused life into the place.

In the late evening hours, the lights go out at Gan Yehonatan. Only two girls 
remain with Alexandrov to confide their problems. The rest of the group, 
equipped with cigarettes and booze, drift off into the dark corners of the park.

Alexandrov looks at them sadly as they disappear. She hopes this evening will 
end without any violent incidents, and that tomorrow they will come back "home."

"Because this is the only place that could possibly constitute a home for 
them," she says.
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