South Tel Aviv residents protest bid to overturn 'Infiltrators Law'
Protesters gather outside High Court chamber as nine justices hear petition from human rights groups, say they are prisoners in their own homes.
Hundreds of residents of south Tel Aviv gathered at the Supreme Court in Jerusalem on Tuesday morning, protesting outside the courtroom as judges heard a petition to overturn the new version of the "Infiltrators Law", which allows African migrants in Israel to be detained for up to one year.
The protesters denounced the asylum seekers who have moved primarily to their neighborhood, and called for their removal. An extended panel of nine judges heard the petition by human rights organizations calling for the new amendment to the law, which was passed in December, to be revoked.
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Singing Hatikvah, the Israeli national anthem, the south Tel Aviv locals cursed the African migrants, saying that they had made them into prisoners in their own homes.
An elderly woman, who said she had recently been robbed of her shopping trolley, called out to the migrants: "Come and rape me!"
"We are the real refugees in our neighborhoods," said another protester.
The petition claims that the amendment to the law makes treatment by the state worse for asylum seekers, as the facility to which they are sent is in essence a prison.
On Saturday night, some 200 asylum seekers and human rights activists protested at Rabin Square in Tel Aviv on Saturday evening, calliung on the Court to overturn the new law.
An elderly woman, who said she had recently been robbed of her shopping trolley, called out to the migrants: "Come and rape me!"
"We are the real refugees in our neighborhoods," said another protester.
The petition claims that the amendment to the law makes treatment by the state worse for asylum seekers, as the facility to which they are sent is in essence a prison.
