That's how the Palestinian residents of Yaffa must have felt when Jews started showing up in the 30's, 40's

Isn't it ironic that the only so-called "Palestinians" in the '30s and '40s were the native Jews who have always maintained a presence in Israel after multiple expulsions and persecutions. The newly arrived Jews built a city from scratch next to Yafo, called Tel Aviv. Are you denying Jewish historical connection to Israel? Are you implying that Africans have the same connection?

even the language used by these protestors takes its verbiage out of the worst that racist xenophobia has ever offered. if the government is to be criticized it is because it is doing nothing to halt the growing emergence of racist ideologies among the people of israel.

No country worth its salt allows itself to be usurped by strangers. Where is you common sense and sense of pride? For heavens sake, are you willing to allow Israel to turn into a third world shit hole after over 100 years of work, blood and tears to build a Jewish country? Get rid of them..they will swamp you out of your own country. Netanyahu...stop the BS and the 15 second sound bites...do your bloody job and get on this case. BS time is over..Israel is in mortal danger of being deluged by these strangers.

Ali writes, "That's how the Palestinian residents of Yaffa must have felt when Jews started showing up in the 30's, 40's". Jaffa is a 4,000 year old city that once belonged to the Biblical Israel. Jews were there in numbers in the late 19th century but, given their treatment by the Arabs of the time, decided to create their own city - Tel Aviv. They didn't start "showing up" in the 30's. The protesters are right about one thing: There is currently no "clear immigration policy". Nor have those bleeding hearts answered a simple question. How many is "too many", and what actions will they sanction once that number is exceeded? As it is, more are infiltrating month by month than are arriving as Jewish immigrants.

Well if you think its racism, why don't you get off your high horse, to experience what it is like living in these neighborhoods, There has been a massive rase in crime, violence and rape, and these people just want some justice.

Protests are not enough. These infiltrators are not going back. And shame on those groups who apposed this protest.

Put all of them on a plane out of the country. Just like Sarkozy, one of the western leaders. Ironic it is how Egypt is not criticised for pursuing those poor people and shooting them. Israel has its own poor she has to take care before becoming MOMMA THERESA.

The world hates Israel when it stands up for its interests. If we manage to upset hypocrite smartasses like you, then we probably are doing something right.

The infiltrators will "go back" when they are finally deported. The sooner the better. Read # 7, he is 100% correct.

Ali! and that's how Jews and Christians felt when the Muslim epidemic showed up in their neighborhoods in the 7th century.

israel is home only to the jewish people. everyone else including their supporters should be repatriated to their country of origin.

I think we should show a bit of decorum and decency to people who literally had to flee for their lives from genocide. Yes their not Jewish and maybe causing crime but this is what happens when migrants from Third World countries come to the Western World. At the very least they should be offered basic services and given the option to return to Sudan after the partition in January.

At this rate, how much longer will we remain a Jewish country, a haven for JEWS? Number 5, Al, is right. Over 20,000 of our soldiers have died since the founding of the State 62 1/2 years ago, and for what? We had to wait 2000 years to get back Eretz Yisrael...so are we going to lose it now? We are one tiny tiny Jewish country. Let other larger countries take in these poor people.

First I want to be clear that these people are illegals and don't belong in our country. Second Israel won't be able to stop the flood of refugees that are trying to make it to Israel so why not go to their countries with the help of other countries and help re-establish security and peace in those regions so the people can return to their lives? If more keep coming that might be the only choice Israel will have left...

things need to under stand,change the word''immigrants'',we are asylum seekers,we are not coming for economic reasons,if it was,Saudi Arab is much richer than Israel and it is our neighbor.The reason why we are coming is ,Israel is the highly democratic country in our region and its people have the feeling of humanity. We are coming form the lawless region,horn of Africa,from the two top ten dictators of the world.It is life threatening situation.That's why we decide to cross the life or death journey .We are not criminals ,if there is a crime,it is an individual case.collective blame is unjustified.

You have no idea what you are talking about, very few of them fled anything, the amount of infiltrators that are actually from war torn areas is very few, many are from Guana, etroa. And Nigeria, even South Africa, they openly admit that they lie about being from Sudan to get refugee status, they come for one reason money, they also admit if they could they would rather be in the US. I myself am from NJ, I can tell you for a fact African illegal immigrants have it much better in Tel aviv, than native African Americans have it in many NJ cities, and all across America, you are a complete ignorant ass, the media portrayal of the situation is complete b.s., go worry about,Camden, AC, Newark, Jersey City, South Orange, Plainfeild, Elizabeth, Patterson, Rahway, all cities in New Jersey, where American citizens live with absolute violence and under horrorific conditions, just like all across America, you ass.

One of the very real and understandable complaints the Jeewish residents of south Tel Aviv is because the illegals, refugees - whoever and whatever - are only housed in south Tel Aviv where Tel Aviv's poorest communities live. Haven't we all heard them - the S. T/A residents - calling for the governement t ssend them to north T/A ? Can you imagine the outcry the residents of Ramat Aviv and other north T/A suburbs would raise? As for Michael in New Jersey - how about the not-so-great U.S. of A taking in some of these people? Oh yes, I can see that would go down very well. Alright for you to preach from afar when you haven't an inkling of the situation on the ground.

Where is your respect? I think it is YOU who is not well aware of the real situation in the South of Tel-Aviv. I have been helping the African asylum seekers community for 3 years now and I can assure you most of them are genuine refugees, who escaped from genocide, torture, political repression. The lack of compassion and understanding is blatant in this country. And it is awful. I have never seen such tangible xenophobia and racism in my life. Everyone talks about the high crime rate among Africans, yet doesn't anyone do any research on this topic? Apparently not, because whether you like it or not, crime rate among Africans in israel today is LOWER than the crime rate among the rest of the population. Don't believe me? See here:http://www.jpost.com/Israel/Article.aspx?id=166376 (in Hebrew only, sorry) I don't understand. This is a country that is already very fragmented and doesn't get along among themselves (betweeh Spharadim, Ashkenazim, Mizrakhim, Ethiopim, Arabs, etc.) and now pretends that some refugees will "threaten their identity" and character??!! Acts of violence against Africans is just a SHAME. These people deserve our highest respect. If you don't want to help them, at least don't hurt them!

I have African friends here, real friends, and many I have worked with too. They are much more honest about the situation then you are. Never seen such racism? You must have had a very sheltered life, You are nonsense, I don't need statistics, I have more than enough real life experiences to know what is going on, I am right down here with them in the trenches trying to survive, they tell me quite openly their views, who they really are and so forth. If you come down from your ivory tower now and than to help them, that's fine, but don't preach to me. You are either ignorant of the truth or just dishonest. Also, I just got off the phone with a friend who happens to be from Sudan, he informed me that lefties like you were behind their meetings and upcoming protest, which is causing more problems than solving amazing how the lefties go to other neighborhoods and stir up all the problems than go home to their quiet safe neighborhoods. I told my freind my view that, Africans have been treated well and ginen so much here, but too many are coming and now making all these demands and protesting, I told him as a person, if I have a guest in my house, and treat them well, and than they start inviting over all their friends and demanding more and more, than I throw them out, he agreed completely. If you do work with Sudanese refugees than they will tell you, the majority of the Africans are from other places and lying about their backgrounds. I will say, those from Etria that are here are good hard working people, but they came for jobs and are honest about it, they make us much money as they can, send it home and leave bleeding the country. They live many to an apt. So they don't care about bills, while other immigrants like me can't compete because they will work for so little, and absurd hours, not worrying about actually building lives here. As far as crime many Africans I have worked with brag quite openly about it, they think they are "gangstah" trying to emulate American rap stars. I could go on and on and on, a huge percentage are from Ghana, is there war in Ghana? no. Anyway, I don't blame the Africans, I blame the Gov. for our open boarders, which are an obvious security risk, and greedy buisness owners, mostly of Resturaunts, who say no Jews will do these jobs, bull shit, no Jews will work for 60+ hours a week to include, Shabbat and holidays for less than 25 shecles an hour with no overtime. Africans receive more help and benefits here than anyone. You are full of it, you need to shut up. Real laws need to be put in place, and enforced against greedy scumbag buisness owners, this will protect all immigrants legal and illegal, labor laws need to be enforced, immigration needs to be regulted and the borders completely secured, and people like you need to get real.

but then... racism is founded on ignorance and big lies.

your lucky to only have a few thousand afican infiltrators,london has them by the million.

Why do I find it hard to believe that you actually do have a friend from Sudan?!?! I also live in the South of Tel-Aviv, and to answer your question about me living a sheltered life, well I have very little money, have a simple job and donate my time to help others, that's all. I live in no ivory tower and have experienced life in Africa several times in my life, helping people build schools and orphanages there in Africa, hoping it will make a difference. By the way the correct spelling is "Eritrea", and you have no idea about the demographics of Africans, I am sorry. The Ghanese community is one of the smallest African communities here, they are not a large group, like you pretend. In any case, I see that most of the psople here do not see things the way I do, so I will let you discuss and encourage each other in this madness.

How could demographics on illegal immigrants possibly be acutate? I would say one out of five Africans I meet are from Ghana. Also, your crime statistics are not accurate either, because the police for the most part have avoided dealing with the Africans, the police here are useless in general unless dealing with terror suspects, this of obviously about to change. I don't care if you beleive that I have African friends here. How is it that I meet so many like you who come here to Israel to help Africans and Palestinians, never to help Jews. Anyway, I am from the far right and have many African friends, all from, the different jobs I have worked, TA is a small place, I'm sure we even know some of the same people, or will meet in the future. How is it possible, that I have African friends? I respect everyone, and am honest about things and they are not hull of shit like you, it's that simple.

Sophie, please dont be put off by some of the talbacks here. You have given us your opinion & I for one appreciate that.. Lets say that you & Brian have had different experiences with Africans & leave it at that. Bless you for donating your time to help others less fortunately off than yourself.

Brain have you ever heard of the Oz Unit? It is the very well know immigration police in Israel. Btw sophie never said she helps Palestinians. If you respect everyone, you would'nt tell Sophie she is full of sh*t !! Are'nt you the same Brian who a couple of months ago wrote here how you came to Israel & how much you love the country & the people?

i would like to say that to the people of israel to remember about the past how was the suitian of the jews now also u need to rescu / save/give hep god help you = amen

These people don't belong in the country for various legal reasons, the first being that they are illegal and that makes them criminals. Also it complicates things because then people can take advantage of them and I don't want to get into all that it's an entirely different animal. No one is saying they shouldn't be helped, but giving them a free pass is not a solution to their problems. If they are refugee's like you say then there are legal exceptions for them that will allow them to remain in the country legally and they need to work with the government to make it happen. My family was also refugee for about a year and I know how scary it is for them, but it doesn't make things right by ignoring their illegal presence in the country. I still think that if Israel wants to end the refugee problem it needs to put troops on the ground in their country to alleviate the situation and help rebuild those nations. I know it's not going to happen because I don't think Israel could even practically do it, but that really would be the best solution. It would also create a good ally for Israel in the international community. Anyway I just wanted to thank you and Brian for the good work that you both do even if we disagree on how this issue should be handled.