South Tel Aviv plans demo against illegal migrants
Year after PM visit to area where he pledged to remove Eritrean and Sudanese migrants, activists bemoan violence, 'intifada' and 'African colony' that has beset their neighborhoods amid broken promises of forced deportation.
The demonstration’s slogan—“Sophie is still waiting! Returning sovereignty!”—was selected as a reference to a meeting held between an elderly lady and Netanyahu during his visit to the area, who explained her difficulties and was promised by the prime minister that the migrant issue would soon be resolved.
“We will do what a sovereign country has to do,” Netanyahu said at the time.
South Tel Aviv has been seriously affected by the wave of illegal migration in recent years that swept through Israel’s once-porous southern border.
The roughly 35,000 - 37,000 Africans, mainly from war-torn Sudan and dictatorial Eritrea, began arriving in Israel in 2005 through its border with Egypt after Egyptian forces violently quashed a refugee demonstration and word spread of safety and job opportunities in Israel.
Tens of thousands crossed the desert border, often after enduring dangerous journeys, before Israel completed a barrier in 2012 that stopped the influx.
Since then, Israel has wrestled with how to cope with those already in the country. Many took up menial jobs in hotels and restaurants, and thousands settled in southern Tel Aviv, where Israeli residents began complaining of rising crime.
While the migrants say they are refugees fleeing conflict or persecution, Israel views them as job-seekers who threaten the Jewish character of the state.
“Exactly a year after Netanyahu looked Sophie in the eye and promised her that her living nightmare was about to end, we will all stand here outside her home and say in the loudest and clearest voice, ‘You promised us expulsion and we got an intifada,’” said the organizers.
“You promised us sovereignty and we got a fire zone, you promised us a nation state and we got an African colony,” will also be among the chants cried out by the protesters.
In June, clashes broke out as hundreds of Eritreans gathered in the Levinsky Park to demonstrate against Eritrean dictator Isaias Afwerki.
Days later, the police chief superintendent in south Tel Aviv told the Knesset Internal Affairs Committee that the number of violent incidents has soared among the African migrant community in the area under his command since the closure of Saharonim Prison and Holot detention facility, where many were being held.
“We don’t want to hear promises and excuses anymore. We don’t care what Europe is doing and what the High Court of Justice rules against. We chose a right-wing government, so get up and do what a right-wing government should do,” one activist said.
Shefi Paz, a resident of southern Tel Aviv and one of the leaders of the Liberation of South Tel Aviv Front movement who is also one of the initiators of the protest, shared her thoughts on the matter.
“Give the population and immigration authorities power, reopen the Holot facility, enforce the laws which already exist, legislate the laws that don’t yet exist,” Paz said, calling on the government to cut a deal with the Eritrean and Sudanese governments.
“The main thing is that you release us from the punishment of the world’s unemployed who have come as ‘nice guys’ through are back yards,” she continued.
Paz also heaped criticism on the police which she says “persecutes” activists who support expelling the migrants.
“The police, in the absence of tools and support, find themselves helpless in the face of the violence and the crime that has raised its head in the last few months," Paz complained.
"It is looking for the easy solution and is trying to get rid of the activists who are documenting their helplessness through pointless arrests. This is how we find ourselves repeatedly handcuffed in front of the infiltrators who attack us.”
In the absence of a deportation program, the Israeli government has pursued other avenues to pressure the migrants to leave the country.
Since last year, the illegal migrants have faced a de facto 20 percent salary cut as part of Israel’s policy to persuade them to leave.
Israel withholds the money from their paychecks every month and returns it only if they leave the country.
