Israeli daily, Haaretz, reported that an Israeli citizen of Ethiopian origin was injured, on Wednesday evening, after being attacked by Israeli fundamentalists during a protest against African immigrants which called for their expulsion from Israel.The white protesters gathered near the Central Bus Station in Tel Aviv, and held their protest targeting African immigrants and calling for their deportation from the country.
They also described Israeli leftists as “traitors” and held signs saying “South Tel Aviv, Not South Sudan”, Haaretz reported. They stated that they will continue their protests until the government of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, “acts against the immigration of Africans instead of just talking about it”.
Haaretz further reported that Hananya Vanda, a Jewish-Israeli citizen of Ethiopian origin, was “mistakenly identified as an immigrant”, and was attacked by the extremist protesters who later said “they did not know he was Jewish”.
Vanda told Haaretz that he was just walking in the area and taking pictures of the protest; he said that Sudanese in Israel are treated like Ethiopians, adding that “it seems black presence is intimidating”.
Israel is in the process of deporting South Sudanese citizens back to what is now the State of South Sudan. Haaretz said that Attorney General, Yehuda Weinstein, said that South Sudan is now safe for them to return.
During a similar protest against African immigrants last week, an African person, who was walking in the area, was attacked while several protesters also set garbage cans on fire and smashed windows of a number of cars parked in the area.
Over a thousand Israelis held protests in south Tel Aviv demanding the government deport all African asylum seekers and immigrants. The protesters marched in Hatikva neighborhood, inhabited mainly by persons of African origin, and ransacked property in the neighborhood while setting trashcans ablaze.
Over the last year, discrimination against Africans, including African Jews, has increased in Israel, while some right-wing Jewish groups have worked to ban Ethiopian Jewish students from government and Jewish schools.
