Israel – The gradual nightmare for African asylum seekers
Israel is embroiled in tragic tales of black African asylum seekers. In this special report this magazine’s Middle East analyst Ran HaCohen (PhD), from Tel Aviv, Israel, looks deep into the tricky human, political and economical factors at play
The prelude took place at the end of April: four Molotov cocktails, thrown at homes and a kindergarten of African asylum seekers in Tel Aviv. The damage was massive; luckily nobody was injured. Hell broke loose a few weeks later. A demonstration against the so-called “Sudanese” – most of them are in fact Eritreans – attracted a handful of politicians, both from Netanyahu’s far-right coalition and from the even-further-right opposition, who turned the event into an incitement contest. “The time for words is over,” threatened opposition Knesset Member Michael Ben-Ari (former member of the violent Jewish-racist “Kach” movement, outlawed in Israel and considered a terrorist organization in the United States).