With 60,000 Illegal African immigrants in Israel; Israel rears it’s ugly head, with demonstrators smashing African-run shops and property, chanting “Blacks out!”

 Anti-African riot sparks migrant dispute

Jerusalem – Violent race riots that shook southern Tel Aviv overnight sparked shock in Israel on Thursday, but also prompted top-level calls for the immediate arrest and expulsion of tens of thousands of African migrants.

The latest unrest to sweep the impoverished neighbourhoods around Tel Aviv’s central bus station erupted when a demonstration of around 1 000 people who were protesting against the rising number of Africans moving into the area turned violent.

“Shock, violence and hatred of foreigners in Tel Aviv” was the headline in the Maariv daily, which described scenes of chaos as demonstrators went on the rampage with sticks and stones, attacking African-run shops and smashing up a car driven by two African men.

Racist speeches

Most reports said the rally turned nasty after the crowd was whipped up by several racist speeches by right-wing MPs, several of them from the ruling Likud party of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

“The infiltrators are a cancer in our body,” Likud MP Miri Regev told the crowd, as fellow MP Danny Danon shouted: “The infiltrators must be expelled from Israel! Expulsion now!”

Africans’ home torched in Jerusalem

Jerusalem – Four African migrants were taken to an Israeli hospital with burns and smoke inhalation on Monday after a deadly arson attempt on the Jerusalem building in which they were living, police said.

The incident, which police described as “very serious”, took place in an old two-storey building in a poor neighbourhood near the city’s Mahane Yehuda market, just after 03:00.

Police said the fire was started in a narrow entrance corridor which led to several apartments inside the building, home to 18 African migrants. On the external walls of the building, someone had sprayed Hebrew-language graffiti reading: “Get out of the neighbourhood.”

“There were 18 people living in the building, and the corridor leads to all the apartments,” police spokesperson Micky Rosenfeld said, indicating that all the residents were of African origin.

“It is obvious that the people living there were targeted and not just the building,” he said, adding that at least four people were taken to hospital, suffering from burns and smoke inhalation.

Racist attack in Israel - 3 hurt

Tel Aviv – An attacker stabbed three Eritrean men in a south Tel Aviv video store on Tuesday in what police said they were initially treating as a racist attack.

“All three people that were stabbed were taken to hospital with light to moderate injuries,” police spokesperson Micky Rosenfeld said.

“A suspect who was in the video shop at the time fled the scene. Police are searching for him.”

He did not give a physical description of the suspect, adding that police were currently examining CCTV footage and interviewing witnesses.

An eyewitness told an AFP photographer that the assailant was of Israeli appearance.

Rosenfeld said that while not ruling out other motives the main police avenue of investigation was that it was a hate crime.

60 000 illegal immigrants

Rising tensions over the growing number of illegal immigrants has turned violent in recent months with arson attacks on Africans in Tel Aviv and Jerusalem.

In May an anti-immigrant protest in south Tel Aviv turned ugly, with demonstrators smashing African-run shops and property, chanting “Blacks out!”

Israeli figures indicate there are around 60 000 Africans in the country illegally, mostly from Sudan and Eritrea. Most of them live in run-down neighbourhoods of south Tel Aviv.

On 10 June, the immigration police began a mass roundup operation, which initially focused on South Sudanese nationals but which has been expanded to include those from the Ivory Coast.