Israel: Racist attacks on African migrants in the exclusivist, undemocratic state of Israel

Israelis protest against African migrant workers in south Tel Aviv, May 23, 2012. Photo by Moti Milrod

African migrants meet angry backlash in Israel

By EDMUND SANDERS
Los Angeles Times

Published: Monday, May. 28, 2012

TEL AVIV — The first Molotov cocktail ignited a backyard fence, just a couple of feet from where three Eritrean refugees were sleeping outdoors on makeshift beds of wood planks atop old TVs. One man burned his arm trying to extinguish the flames with a blanket.

Moments later, a second firebomb was tossed through an open air vent into the adjacent apartment, where another family of African asylum-seekers was sleeping. It exploded in the shower without causing injury.

The post-midnight attacks last month by unknown assailants continued across Tel Aviv’s dilapidated Shapira neighborhood, striking another refugee house and a kindergarten catering to African children.

Israelis protesting in south Tel Aviv against anti-foreigner violence on Thursday. Photo by Tomer Appelbaum

“We’re just looking for some peace in our life,” said Berhun Gergrehra, 60, a former Eritrean soldier who fled poverty and repression there two years ago, arriving in Israel after walking through Sudan and Egypt with his teenage son and daughter. “But everyone here just hates us. Why?”

Israel is a nation founded by refugees, mostly Jews escaping persecution in Europe and the Middle East. It grew and prospered thanks to additional immigration from Russia, Ethiopia and other nations.

But now Israel’s identity as a refuge is being challenged by an influx of tens of thousands of Africans, who also see the country as a haven from oppression in their native lands. Since 2006, more than 60,000 Africans – mostly from Eritrea and Sudan, including the latter’s Darfur region – have poured over the border from Egypt’s Sinai desert, taking advantage of Israel’s proximity as one of the nearest modern democracies accessible to African refugees.

But unlike past waves of Jewish immigrants, the flood of Africans is triggering an ugly and sometimes violent backlash in Israel. Refugee activists say some government leaders are fostering the intolerance and anger toward Africans, who are accused of committing crimes, stealing jobs from Israelis and potentially undermining the Jewish character of the country.

Zionist Racism on display: Anti-African Rally in Tel Aviv

[Once again, the Jewish-exclusivist settler-colonialist/apartheid state of Israel reveals its racist character (routinely directed against the indigenous Palestinians, but in this case, against African migrants from Sudan.) — Frontlines ed.]

December 12, 2011–Rally against Sudanese refugees in Tel Aviv, calling to “restrict their movement” and set up concentration camps.

Al Jazeera: African migrants in Europe speak out

Migrants all over Europe fight for their rights and try to improve their situation.
20 Sep 2011

What to do when you are mistreated as an African immigrant in Europe?

Hip hop artist K-Nel presents reports about migrants all over Europe who fight for their rights and try to improve their living conditions.

Sissoko Azoumane from Mali is the spokesman for a protest movement in Paris, that fights for papers for the undocumented migrants who have been living in France for years, contributing to the French economy. But a new law has eroded all of their hopes for papers.

Sorious Samura checks out how some migrants even clone identities in order to try to get a job.

Wahabou from Senegal survived a devastating fire that killed 20 people in an apartment where migrants were housed, and decides to do something about fire safety in Parisian buildings.

In Brescia, Italy, Africans unite to improve housing conditions when they get evicted as a result of anti-immigration sentiments.

Many African migrants in Libya mistakenly targeted by mass uprising

Mar 1, 2011
While many have hailed the revolt against Muammar Gaddafi’s rule in Libya as symptomatic of a nationalistic desire for freedom and equality, there is a dark side to this revolution. Many African migrant workers report that they have been attacked by anti-government protesters, after having been mistaken for mercenaries hired by Gaddafi. They say that their businesses have been attacked, and residents of Benghazi, an opposition stronghold say they are too afraid to even venture out of their houses. Al Jazeera’s Jacky Rowland reports from Benghazi, in eastern Libya.