Published: 24 May, 2012, 06:41
Edited: 24 May, 2012, 15:30
Edited: 24 May, 2012, 15:30
Hundreds of people
demonstrate in the impoverished Hatikva neighborhood of the southern
Mediterranean city of Tel Aviv on May 23, 2012 (AFP Photo / Roni
Schutzer)Israel Out)
Thousands of Israelis, including high-profile politicians, attended an anti-African demonstration in Tel Aviv. The rally turned violent, with attacks on Africans and grocery shop windows being smashed.
The gathering, which took place in Tel Aviv’s Hatikva neighborhood, targeted the influx of African asylum seekers and was organized by Michael Ben Ari, a Knesset member from the National Union party, along with far-right activists Itamar Ben-Guir and Baruch Marzel, Israeli newspaper Haaretz reports.
Many protesters also blamed the government, and Benjamin Netanyahu specifically, for inaction.
But the rally was also attended by politicians from the ruling Likud party, including Knesset members Miri Regev and Danny Danon.
Former army brigadier general and Israeli Defense Forces spokeswoman Regev described asylum seekers as a “cancer in our body.”
On Thursday, Regev explained that her use of the word "cancer" was meant "to illustrate the spread of a negative phenomenon. This is a manifestation of rage that has been unleashed after a long time of people feeling unsafe in their own homes."
"With all due respect to the Left and Peace Now – they are the reason that our country is in the state it's in. Because of their High Court petitions we cannot deport all those infiltrators to their countries of origin," she reportedly charged.
Danon also said the “infiltrators” had to be immediately expelled from Israel. Read more
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