TEL AVIV: The spokeswoman for the Israeli Population and Migration Authority announced that a large group of illegal African immigrants will begin to be deported Sunday. A second wave, she said, will be flown out later the following week. In Jerusalem there are often clashes between Jews and Arabs. Haifa is often touted as an example of coexistence between Jews and Arabs, though there is little cross cultural interaction. It is Tel Aviv, however, that most people consider a liberal enclave within Israeli society, a place in which many Jews and Arabs work together politically and socially through cultural and social events and political demonstrations. Tel Aviv, however, is not immune from racial violence. In recent months, south Tel Aviv, where most of the African immigrants live, has been the site of several attacks against foreign nationals. Last month over 1,000 Israelis assembled in south Tel Aviv to listen to several Israeli parliament members speak against the African asylum speakers. After the politicians delivered speeches in which they referred to the refugees as “infiltrators” and a “cancer,” a throng of right-wing demonstrators swarmed through the neighborhood and attacked several Africans, and vandalized their cars, homes, and restaurants. It was also reported that at least two homes were set on fire. In the wake of the attack, Israeli PM Benyamin Netanyahu said that there were over 60,000 asylum seekers in Israel, the majority of which are from Eritrea and Sudan. The Israeli government until now has yet to pass an official law on the status of refugees and asylum seekers. The majority of Israelis who oppose granting asylum or working permits to African immigrants argue that they take jobs which should be going to Israelis, while hardliners blame them for crimes like theft, rape, and violence. Ari Heerstein, a former volunteer Hebrew teacher at a center in south Tel Aviv, disagrees. “All of the refugees I have encountered seemed committed to improving their situation. One student of mine, for instance, used to chastise the other students for not working hard enough on their homework, repeating over and over that ‘education is the key'.” “If Israel's general impression of the refugees is one of the recklessness and violence, I would say that mine is the exact opposite: kind, hardworking, and incredibly friendly,” he added. Mohammad Abu Toameh, a member of a student communist movement at Tel Aviv University, says that the situation is much more complex than it has been portrayed in the press. He points to the fact that over a million Palestinian refugees still live in squalid refugee camps in Jordan, Lebanon, Syria, and the occupied Palestinian territories. “The situation is ridiculous,” Abu Toameh said. “If the Israeli government sends them back to war zones, it will cost many of them their lives.” The newly established South Sudan has recently seen several military clashes with its northern neighbor. Political and sectarian violence is also common in Eritrea. “The government encouraged them to come here in the first place, to make up for the loss of cheap labor once Palestinians from the occupied territories were no longer allowed to work inside Israel after the Second Intifada,” he continued. Any refugee issue in Israel, Abu Toameh and others argue, cannot be separated from the plight of displaced Palestinians. “If Israel grants them asylum, they will try to present it to the world as a humanitarian gesture. But it's more like a ploy. Remember, Palestinian refugees — 90 percent – of which can return to their original villages without displacing a single Jewish family—are denied the opportunity to live and work in their historical homeland.” Israel is presently in the process of building a high security fence along the country's border with Egypt's Sinai Peninsula. Officials say that this will help prevent the entrance of illegal immigrants.
