Riot of Eritreans at Tel Aviv Injures Scores, as Immigrant Violence Comes to Israel — Plus Sweden, Norway, Germany, and Canada

TEL AVIV — Israel, after one of the most violent days in memory at this city, is going through its Rio Grande moment, trying to figure out what to do about African migrants. Over the weekend two opposing groups of migrants from Eritrea clashed at a southern Tel Aviv neighborhood. More than 170 people were injured, including several who suffered life threatening wounds. At least 15 rioters were hit by gunfire. Police got involved and at one point fired live ammunition at a crowd that wielded stones, sticks, and other improvised weapons. Rioters broke storefront windows and damaged public property. Businesses reported major losses. For a day, southern Tel Aviv looked like a war zone. The country, politically torn over a proposed overhaul of the judicial system, is now debating who is responsible for a simmering problem. Some 25,000 African migrants, mostly from Sudan and Eritrea, have resided at Tel Aviv for more than a decade with no path for citizenship, as the country lacks legal avenues to deport them. The political right is pointing fingers at the supreme court, which is the focus of a major debate in the country, saying the justices allowed in too many asylum seekers, many of whom are in fact job seekers. The left accuses Prime Minister Netanyahu’s government of incompetence. Many worry about a collapse of sectors like hospitality, where migrants work as cooks and cleaners. Critics accuse the right-wing interior minister, Itamar Ben Gvir, of a lack of preparation by the police. That, critics insist, resulted in a shootout at the heart of Israel’s most vibrant city. On Sunday Mr. Ben Gvir proposed to bus the migrants out of the poorer neighborhoods of southern Tel Aviv, and to send them to the affluent areas in the city’s north. Tel Aviv was not alone. Nor was Israel. Eritrean migrants clashed with one another and with police on Saturday at cities in Sweden, Norway, Germany, and, among other places, Canada. Violence from internal strife in Eritrea was exported to the so-called global north. Like migrants crossing the southern border into Texas, tens of thousands — men for the most part — from Africa started arriving in Israel in 2010. President Isaias Afwerki has been in power at Asmara since leading the Eritrean People’s Liberation Front to victory over Ethiopian troops in 1991. His authoritarian regime regularly executes, jails, or otherwise punishes opponents and those who refuse to be conscripted to the army.Parts of the barrier separating Israel from Egypt’s Sinai peninsula were easily infiltrated until 2003, when the border barrier was reinforced. Still, the supreme court banned deportations. Many argued that Jews, who in the past were denied access to Western countries when they fled the Nazi horrors, must welcome those seeking refuge in Israel. So a growing African population now dominates southern Tel Aviv. Long-time residents complain about poverty and crime in the neighborhood. One local activist, May Golan, rose up in the ranks of the Likud party after leading high-profile protests at southern Tel Aviv. Nominated by Mr. Netanyahu to be consul general at New York a few years ago, Ms. Golan’s candidacy was quickly nixed, following an outcry from American Jewish leaders who accused her of racism. She now serves as a minister in Mr. Netanyahu’s government. Eritrea, meanwhile, has increasingly cultivated relations with some of Israel’s enemies, including, recently, with the Islamic regime in Iran. Yet Eritrea maintains an embassy at Tel Aviv, which caters to the migrant population and keeps an eye on regime opponents. On Saturday, like other embassies around the world, it organized an event to celebrate the country’s independence. Opponents of the Asmara regime, identifying themselves in blue T-shirts, protested the event. Regime supporters, wearing red T-shirts and bearing construction beams, rocks, and concrete slabs, arrived at the scene. Police seemed ill-prepared for the riot that ensued. A police sergeant, Avi Salman, “just left the station and saw five Eritreans who assaulted him,” his wife, Rinat, told an Israel public broadcaster, Kan. “He is merely an administrative officer,” who was caught up in the mayhem, she said. Mr. Salman suffered major blows to the head and is undergoing several complex operations.Some 30 other officers were injured. Cornered on a small street, outnumbered and surrounded by a rowdy crowd, some cops “had no choice” but to open fire, the police commissioner, Jason Shabtai, said on Sunday. “How can violent regime supporters be classified as asylum seekers,” Mr. Netanayhu said Sunday at the start of his weekly cabinet meeting. He vowed to deport a large number of Eritreans. Yet the legal path for expulsion is unclear and may deepen the government’s feud with the supreme court.

Riot of Eritreans at Tel Aviv Injures Scores, as Immigrant Violence Comes to Israel — Plus Sweden, Norway, Germany, and Canada

Riot of Eritreans at Tel Aviv Injures Scores, as Immigrant Violence Comes to Israel — Plus Sweden, Norway, Germany, and Canada

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