Just a week after an Israeli threw Molotov cocktails at four apartments that are home to African refugees and an African kindergarten in the Shapira neighborhood of South Tel Aviv, another residence has been attacked with firebombs.
Two Molotov cocktails were hurled at the home of Nigerian immigrants in the HaTikva neighborhood in South Tel Aviv on Saturday night, according to Maariv (Hebrew). The firebombs did not penetrate the structure, which is located near the HaTikva market. No injuries were reported and no arrests have been made in connection with the incident.
The 20-year-old Israeli who was arrested in connection with last week’s attacks on the African community is expected to appear in court today. Police believe that the attacks were racially motivated and that the suspect intended to drive Africans from the neighborhood; the suspect has been arrested in the past for throwing eggs at a Sudanese refugee.
The past several years have seen Jewish Israelis in impoverished south Tel Aviv neighborhoods growing increasingly angry about the presence of foreigners. Locals have held a number of protests calling for the deportation of Africans; migrants and their children have been targeted in a number of violent attacks. Several south Tel Aviv schools have barred non-Israeli children from enrolling.
Jewish Israeli residents of South Tel Aviv say that the government is dumping the problem of refugees on their neighborhoods and that the area lacks the resources to cope.
While Africans are frightened by recent events, they have also expressed compassion for Jewish Israelis and agree with locals’ statements that the government must address the areas’ issues. African residents of South Tel Aviv have called on their Israeli neighbors to meet and discuss the problems and to come up with a solution together.
Haggai Matar contributed to this report.
For additional original analysis and breaking news, visit +972 Magazine's Facebook page or follow us on Twitter. Our newsletter features a comprehensive round-up of the week's events. Sign up here.
Greg Pollock
“Several south Tel Aviv schools have barred non-Israeli children from enrolling.”
.
Schools have this authority under law?
.
It is painful to see the Jewish poor having to do this. But the phenomenon occurs throughout the world. The State should not enhance it.
Rafael
“Schools have this authority under law?”
We did see many Ashkenazi Haredi schools refusing students from Oriental communities.
Sarah
I thought the “State of Israel” was created under the guise of being a “Jewish homeland” for all Jews around the world…how do they justify now picking and choosing WHICH Jews should be allowed to live there, and where their children can and can not go to school based on the colour of their skin? This is yet another example of why Israel has failed…it is indeed an apartheid state.
Greg Pollock
Rafael,
.
That schools are doing this doesn’t mean it is lawful. It might be–Israel is pretty strange. But I would begin by assuming it is not lawful. But if neither the State nor the courts act, well, it just as if it is lawful.
.
So I wonder if any suits have been filed over these exclusions, or whether the State is mandated to provide an alternative shcool when exclusion happens. I have the impression that Israel has many good laws; they are just not enforced. But I really don’t know.
SHLOMO KROL
I don’t understand why intelligent people subscribe for the demagoguery of “dumping migrants to impoverished neighbourhoods”. Of course the migrants live in the neighbourhoods where the housing is cheap. Of course these neighbourhoods have many problems. But the problem with the Israeli society is that it is racist and views the migrants themselves as a problem. If the migrants are problem, than they indeed add to other problems of south Tel Aviv. But I think, it si this view which is problematic, not the migrants.
These views must be confronted and not adopted, because if we accept them, than we accept, God forbid us from accepting this, that Arabs are problem in “communal settlements” and in Safed, that Ehiopian immigrants are problem in Mevasseret Zion, that Orthodox Jews are problem in Ramat Aviv, that those not Orthodox enough are problem in Beit Shemesh, that gays are problem in Jerusalem, that Jews are problem in Qazrin, that Beduins are problem in Beer Sheva and the rest of the divisive and ugly crap of the social, political and everyday life in Israel.
Frank
Not to be nitpicky, but calling them “Nigerian immigrants” is to me false.
These are Nigerian citizens who for the most part overstayed legal tourism visas in order to work illegally to make money. They are not refugees, they are not asylum seekers or immigrants, they are illegal foreign workers.
This is the case for the Nigerians. Worth noting.
Bob
Sarah, these Africans aren’t Jewish so your remark above basically is wrong.