Rash of teen violence renews focus on south Tel Aviv gang linked to migrants’ kids |
Amid a recent wave of brutal and occasionally deadly violence involving teenagers, a wave of robberies and assaults in south Tel Aviv has thrust a youth gang linked to migrant communities into the center of a renewed focus on juvenile delinquency nationwide.
SSQ, short for “Shapira SQuad,” is largely made up of the second generation of Sudanese, Eritrean and Filipino asylum seekers and foreign workers. The migrants lack any permanent status in Israel, despite having lived here long enough to raise teenagers born here. Now, according to authorities, some of these children have turned to crime.
The gang has become a household name, particularly in right-wing activist circles, which view the increasingly frequent assaults, robberies and harassment of longtime residents of the working class neighborhood as evidence that foreign nationals must leave the country for good, a goal that many of them have long argued for.
But activists and NGO workers argue that the government’s refusal to grant asylum-seekers and other foreign nationals living in Israel without legal status any sort of temporary residency or rights is precisely what has led their teenage children into gang crime.
“They turn into easy prey for criminals,” said Kibrom Tewelde, an Eritrean living in Israel who works with second-generation foreign nationals at the Hotline for Refugees and Migrants, an NGO that supports and advocates for the community. “They give them a feeling of security, belonging and that they’re worth something. It also lets them make easy money.”
The youth gang, which has been operating for several years, became the focus of national attention recently after two lethal stabbings by groups of minors shook Israeli society.
Neither the killing of 21-year-old Yemanu Zelka in Petah Tikva or that of 19-year-old Destao Tzakul had any evident link to SSQ or foreign nationals, but the sudden focus on juvenile delinquency provided an opportunity for Shapira residents to spotlight their long-held grievances.
“I don’t walk around in the streets, I don’t even walk the dog. I’m just scared,” said longtime Shapira resident Ditza Cohen to Channel 12 news.
The outlet claimed that most other neighborhood residents are unwilling to voice concerns about the gang in public for fear that its members will carry out reprisal attacks against its critics.
Other families have reportedly packed up and left the neighborhood, even the country, when threatened by the gang. In April, the outlet quoted a teacher who said one of his students, 15, had fled to Uganda along with his family after being threatened by the gang. According to the teacher, the student had nicked the bike of a classmate without realizing he was a member of SSQ.
When National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir announced a nationwide police operation to combat violent crime among youth following Zelka’s stabbing, he said that the focus would be on south Tel Aviv, far from where the stabbing had taken place.
Days later, Hebrew outlets reported that Ben Gvir had requested the help of the Shin Bet, which normally handles terror, to deal with the SSQ gang.
Despite the attention, there are also indications that SSQ’s hold over the neighborhood may not be as extensive as feared, though the same forces who have long sought to rid south Tel Aviv of its large migrant population may not be exaggerating the effect the gang has had on the area.
Maya, a community organizer who has lived in the neighborhood for the past decade, said she was less concerned by the gang. The single mother, 50, often hangs out at Cafe Shapira, located in the same park that the gang is known to loiter in.
While she told The Times of Israel that she doesn’t feel afraid to walk the streets or even be near the supposed gang members herself, she doesn’t allow her 11-year-old daughter to go around by herself at night. She sees no problem with letting her roam around in the daytime, though.
An August report in Haaretz described SSQ as highly structured and made up of just 20-25 members. Most were said to be foreign nationals born in Israel, but the gang also included a handful of Israeli citizens, according to the report.
According to reports, gang members range in age from 17 to as young as 7. Court documents from a recent case involving 12 SSQ members listed their ages as between 15 and 17.
Though the group is known to brag about its exploits on social media, little has been published about who leads SSQ, how widespread the group is or to what degree its........