Israel, land of Jewish refugees, riled by influx of Africans
Violent riots broke out in Tel Aviv last night as a growing tide of African migrants strains Israel's ideal as a land for refugees.
In an ironic twist, Israel's most tolerant city erupted in violent riots against African migrants last night, eliciting comparisons with "pogrom" attacks on European Jewish communities in the 19th and 20th centuries.
Over the past five years, tens of thousands of African refugees have poured into Israel, particularly into Tel Aviv's
more conservative working-class southern neighborhoods. Their presence
has fueled a growing moral and policy dilemma that pits the Jewish
collective memory of refugeedom against present day fears for the
state’s economy and Jewish majority.
"Here
is Israel, a country of refugees who gathered here from all over the
world after having suffered for hundreds of years from racist
persecution, discrimination, blind hatred, pogroms and death camps,"
wrote Shai Golden, a columnist in the Maariv newspaper, today. "Along
come the members of the third generation after the restoration of this
nation and they are amassing now against other refugees because of their
difference, because of the color of their skin, because of their own
economic and social distress, and they are behaving exactly the way the
members of the host countries that hosted their parents and grandparents
behaved."
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