I wonder if Obama heard about Israel’s illegal alien problems when he landed there today?
We’ve been reporting the on-going controversy in Israel about African refugees, asylum seekers, illegal aliens (whatever!) coming across Israel’s borders especially now that Egypt has become even more unfriendly to the Jewish state. See our category Israel and Refugees.
In the past week, things boiled over again when a Sudanese man broke into a home allegedly intending to attack a child.
From Haaretz on March 13th:
A Sudanese man broke into a home in the south Tel Aviv neighborhood of Yad Eliyahu at 5 A.M on Wednesday morning and apparently tried to sexually assault an 8-year old girl.
According to an initial investigation, the man entered the home and headed straight to the child’s bedroom, at which point the mother, 40, heard her daughter crying and rushed into the room. She tried to stop the man, who stabbed her in the stomach with a knife and left her with moderate wounds.
When the father heard, he rushed to the room and managed to overpower the assailant, injuring him seriously.
Magen David Adom rescue services arrived after the family called the police and evacuated the man to hospital in unconscious and in serious condition, with injuries to his head. The mother and daughter were also taken to hospital and the daughter is now being examined.
The next day, March 14th, 100 people took to the streets to demonstrate against the presence of the Africans in their neighborhood:
From Indepth Africa:
Some 100 people burned a trash bin and blocked a major intersection in south Tel Aviv yesterday to protest the presence there of African migrant workers, following the attempted rape of an 8-year-old girl and stabbing of her mother…
By the way this then sends us back to Haaretz where there was an article about the demonstration the other day, but it appears to have been taken down. I’m wondering if Haaretz downplayed the demonstration story because it coincided with the release of the Human Rights Report critical of the Netanyahu government which also came out on March 14th?
Just one more incendiary incident in South Tel Aviv
Here is a lengthy article at Al-Monitor critical of Israel for trying to deport illegal aliens/asylum seekers back to Africa. You can read the whole thing yourself, but here is one segment near the end of the story:
Israeli politicians have been at the forefront of a campaign aiming to expel African asylum seekers from Israel. African refugees have been regularly referred to by politicians, and in media reports, as “infiltrators,” and accused of carrying diseases, stealing and raping Israeli women.
In May 2012, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said the presence of African refugees in Israel “is very grave and threatens the social fabric of society, our national security and our national identity.”
Recently, this rhetoric has translated into violence.
Molotov cocktails were thrown at a refugee-run day care center last year, and violent riots broke out during right-wing protests against refugees through South Tel Aviv, an area where many African asylum seekers live. Asylum seekers have also been attacked in streets throughout the country.
On the same day as the alleged attempted rape last week, Human Rights Watch released a critical report on the Israeli government’s attempt to send “asylum seekers” back to Africa.
From the Jerusalem Post:
Human Rights Watch and the Hotline for Migrant Workers released a report on Wednesday stating that Israel is threatening detained Eritrean and Sudanese nationals, including asylum-seekers, with prolonged detention to pressure them to leave Israel.
The report said that since December 11, 2012, “Israel’s pressure has convinced several hundred detained Sudanese and one Eritrean to leave Israel, and in February 2013, some 50 detained Eritreans agreed under similar pressure to leave for Uganda.”
According to the report, all 50 of the detained Eritreans remain in detention.
HRW and the Hotline for Migrant Workers said that Sudanese and Eritreans face a real risk of harm if they return to their home countries.
The report said that under Sudanese law, anyone who has visited Israel faces up to 10 years in prison in Sudan and Sudanese officials have said the courts will apply the law.
Next, the report stated that because of “credible persecution fears relating to punishment for evading indefinite military service in Eritrea, 80 percent of Eritrean asylum seekers worldwide are granted some form of protection.”
“Israel’s prolonged detention of asylum-seekers apparently aims to shatter all hope so they feel they have no real choice but to leave the country,” said Gerry Simpson, senior refugee researcher at Human Rights Watch.
It is happening everywhere in the world—the third world wants in to the first world plain and simple. The first world has to say NO! at some point or ultimately risk collapse. I think we have reached that point.
About the photo: The photo and its accompanying story can be found here at The Times of Israel published in December 2012.