Anti-Semitic attackers in police custody

Anti-Semitic attackers in police custody

The police say the US citizen of Serbian origin told them he had reported to the police since in his words, his conscience does not allow him for the event to be blown out of proportion, since he “did not beat, but hit Yariv Avram”, after Avram allegedly pinched him.

Yariv Avram i Bojana Petković have strongly denied this and say they are shocked by the interpretation of the incident. They have in the meantime identified the assailants. “After such a swift reaction by the police, I have regained my trust in this country. However, I think that in the future the police should react even faster, arrest the attackers right away or better yet, prevent such attacks”, Avram said.

The two detained suspects will be chareged with spreading racial and ethnic hatred.

Bojana Petković and Yariv Avram were beaten by the hooligans wearing Nazi t-shirts and chanting Nazi songs when they attempted to attend a concert. Instead of entering the stadium, they ran into a group of skinheads on the stairs. “They surrounded us chanting ‘Auschwitz’ at me. They yelled at me that I am a bloody Jew and asked me whether I knew what my country did to theirs. They shouted: go to Germany. Then my friend stepped in and we started running, but they caught up with us and started beating us with all their might. They hit me on the head, one of them hit my eye. They hit my friend too. It was horrible”, Yariv Avram recounted.

“We started running, but they surrounded us again and started beating us. Yariv was hit on the head and body, and they kicked me around. We somehow managed to reach the police”, Bojana Petković said. Yariv Avram now has a stitched forehead, while his friend is covered in bruises. The Israeli embassy in Belgrade has been notified of the incident.

The two Tel Aviv stock exchange employees said they were surprised by the behavior displayed by the Belgrade police. “They told me this was a skinhead in a black leather jacket. That means they know him, they described him to me. After that we went to the medical emergency ward, while the police did not react at all. They took our data and that was all”, Bojana Petković said. “I had a good time here, and met a lot of wonderful people. After this, though, I’m not sure I’ll ever come back to your country, and I can’t recommend anyone else to do that either”, Yariv Avram said.

The MUP for its part dismisses the notion that they did not react while the attack on an Israeli citizen took place in Belgrade. The police say the Israelis approached the police during the concert and told them they were attacked by a bald and tattooed man, but would not say who exactly. The police also say they insisted on calling an ambulance, since Avram was injured, but he refused. In spite of this, the ambulance was called and took the pair to the Emergency unit, where Avram was diagnosed with a light injury. MUP also said that an investigative police team went to the Emergency unit, but did not find the Israelis there.

Serbia’s Alliance of Jewish municipalities has received the news ofan attack on two Israelis citizens expressing indignation. “What is particularly worrying is that the young skinheads shouted anti-Jewish slogans and insults aimed at the ethnicity of the two young people”, the Alliance’s statement reads.

Petar Lađević: We will do all that needs to be done

After the news on the incident was broadcast on B92 on Monday, the government’s director of the Human and Minority Rights service Petar Lađević visited Ljiljana Petković, Bojana Petković’s mother, and informed her that all was being done in order to arrest the attackers. Afterwards, Belgrade police inspectors also came to the house, working on identifying the hooligans.

“Anti-Semitism is developing”

Former deputy prime minister and psychologist Žarko Korać told B92 that the Serbian society is paying the price in the shape of the rise of xenophobia and chauvinism, which started in the 1980’s. “For a long time we lied to ourselves that there is no anti-Semitism in Serbia. But, we failed to recognize the developing anti-Semitic tendencies, the existence of the Skinheads, and other such organizations, as well as the glorification of Nikolaj Velimirović, a SPC vladika, who held strong anti-Semitic views and supported Dimitrije Ljotić, who was a Nazi in the WW2. There is an atmosphere where a group of young irresponsible men with psychopathic tendencies feel free to lynch any Israeli they come across”, he said.

“Our society will have to sober up and realize that the fact the vast majority of people are not anti-Semitic does not mean there aren’t these very aggressive anti-Semitic groups in the society itself. They understand the public’s silence as a signal to continue. When the Novi Sad University incident occurred, the public reacted, as well as the courts, and perpetrators were punished. The question that needs to be answered here is will we treat this latest incident as a folly by a group of young men, or if we will, as a society, start openly discussing the fact anti-Semitism is taking some sort of root even in this country. We need to fight this on the political front as well, and it needs to be said that the latest crisis in the Middle East might have added to this – since some so-called intellectuals have called Israel a ‘genocidal entity’”, Korać concluded.

Attacks and organizations

Anti-Semitic, racist and ethnically motivated incidents are trademark of the skinheads and other similar racist groups. The latest attack that was recorded by the media happened mid-July, when a group of hooligans attack a group of Roma in Ripanj, near Belgrade.

It is not uncommon for the members of these extremist organizations to use the internet to publicly brag about their crimes. The Vojvodina assembly has, with the police’s cooperation, decided to compile a list of extremist organizations and has asked the government of Serbia to ban them. The government has not so far responded to these demands. The Novi Sad police has determined that the skinheads constitute a Neo-Nazi organization.