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A 19-year-old Haifa resident was indicted Thursday in connection with a series of neo-Nazi attacks in the northern port city during the month of September.Tomer Ben-Simon is accused of assaulting a 77-year-old woman after first shouting, “Heil Hitler!” He is charged with attacking a second woman as well.Ben-Simon and another perpetrator reportedly attacked the elderly woman while she was walking on the bridge connecting the Meridian Hotel with the Neveh David neighborhood on September 17.The victim told police that “two gang members” beat her, one kicking her and causing her injuries while the other snapped to a Nazi salute, shouting “Heil Hitler!” She finally escaped when a street sweeper stepped in to help her. The neo-Nazi youths beat him too, according to the report.Ben-Simon also allegedly torched a sukkah (Sukkot-holiday temporary structure) belonging to a local synagogue, burning it to the ground. He is also charged with scrawling swastikas on holy books and on at least one of the synagogue’s Torah scrolls. The items were found cast aside not far from the site.Ben-Simon also allegedly vandalized several cars in his neighborhood, allegedly engraving or painting neo-Nazi slogans and Satanist symbols. He reportedly engraved the name of a girl who had died in a traffic accident on her father's car, along with various epithets.Police found several neo-Nazi songs and other propaganda on Ben-Simon’s personal computer.Despite initial suspicions that Ben-Simon might be legally insane, police said he has been found fit to stand trial. The suspected neo-Nazi is apparently Jewish and police have emphasized that his family is not from the former Soviet Union (FSU). Many other perpetrators arrested for neo-Nazi activity were either born in the FSU or are children of immigrants from the region.Other Neo-Nazi Incidents in HaifaHaifa has been hit by a number of other neo-Nazi incidents in the past two months. Most recently, a young man shocked post office workers when he requested a personalized stamp with a neo-Nazi theme, taking advantage of a special "My Stamp" program that allows customers to send images and a payment to post office workers, who then create a set of personalized stamps for the customer's use.The young man from Haifa sent a photo of himself wearing a black shirt with a swastika on the left sleeve, similar to the uniforms worn by the Nazi SS during the Holocaust. Postal officials notified police and said the stamp would not be created.Neo-Nazi incidents have escalated across the country since the arrest of a neo-Nazi gang in Petach Tikva in late August. All the members of the gang were teens who were either themselves born in the former Soviet Union (FSU) or born to parents who emigrated from there to Israel.As in the days of Noah....
