Another unexpected front has opened up in Israel. To the biggest civil crisis in its history as a result of the government’s controversial judicial reform plan, which since its announcement in January has unleashed massive protest demonstrations for 35 consecutive weeks, to the unprecedented increase in organized crime and delinquency in the Israeli Arab sector ( 166 dead so far this year), to the war drums with the Hezbollah group in Lebanon, to the shadow war with Iran and to the deadliest wave of attacks in 20 years at one of the most pessimistic moments in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, scenes of great violence in Tel Aviv with a distant origin are added this weekend.
On Saturday, clashes between Eritreans – supporters and opponents of the Eritrean regime – rocked the southern Israeli city and served as a reminder of the legal limbo in which thousands of asylum seekers live. Several hours of clashes between the two Eritrean groups – who used iron bars, sticks and stones while being separated by the police – caused 170 injuries (19 serious), 39 arrests and numerous damages to shops and cars.
Following the violent pitched battle, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu called an emergency meeting on Sunday to suggest “strong steps against the rioters of the unacceptable riots.” Among the measures are the extension of detentions and the possibility of immediate deportation of illegal immigrants who participated in the clashes. “It is difficult for me to understand why we would have a problem (of expelling them) with those who declare themselves supporters of the (Eritrean) regime who certainly cannot claim refugee status,” Netanyahu said of possible legal obstacles. “If they support the regime so much, then they should go back to their country of origin,” he added before leaving for Cyprus on his first trip since he returned to power eight months ago.
Like any summer Saturday, Tel Aviv woke up calmly and quietly for a new day at the beach, rest and leisure. Not so in its most disadvantaged area, which in the last decade has become the main stronghold for Africans who entered illegally by crossing the 230-kilometre Egyptian border before Israel sealed it off with a huge fence in 2013. The Eritrean embassy had organized an event in the south of the city to commemorate the start of the War of Independence against Ethiopia in 1961. For opponents it was an act of “dictator propaganda” alluding to President Isaias Afewerki, under strong criticism for his repressive policies and for example, not calling elections since independence in 1993.
Last week, several Eritrean churches in Israel sent a letter to police officials asking them not to authorize the event given the high probability of clashes as it happened in other parts of the world. The police deployment was special but insufficient and they soon found themselves overwhelmed by hundreds of Eritreans full of anger against their compatriots. The officers received reinforcements before what was confirmed hour after hour as the most violent clash in recent years in Tel Aviv after opponents of the Asmara regime jumped the fences for their demonstration against the embassy act and attacked their rivals and the policemen who acted as a human barrier between them. In hospitals, attempts were made on the one hand to treat the wounded and on the other to prevent them or their companions from continuing their fight there.
In the harsh hangover in the southern neighborhood of Shapira, Avi points out that he did not leave the house all day on Saturday: “I don’t think I can forget it. It was chaos. And the worst thing is that it can happen again,” warns this Israeli to EL MUNDO denouncing that his country does nothing for his neighborhood while the B-Side club, where the official act was to take place, exhibited the traces of vandalism.
The use of live ammunition in some cases by agents who claimed that their lives were in danger is investigated but supported by the Chief Inspector, Kobi Shabtai, who rejected criticism for the lack of preparation after the warnings from the Eritrean community. “These are messages that we receive every year. We do everything possible to guarantee the sacred right of the demonstration but we have seen an extremely high level of violence,” says Shabtai at the head of an organization with a deficit of personnel and a surplus of challenges and problems.
Most of the Eritreans in Israel – numbering around 20,000 – are based in the backyard of one of the most expensive cities in the world, Tel Aviv. They are the largest group of illegal immigrants followed far behind by the Sudanese. Since January, more than 2,000 Eritreans have left Israel for countries including Canada, the US and Germany.
The associations to help refugees in Israel condemn the violence, highlighting that it was carried out by a minority and denouncing that their country does not study all cases of asylum requests, leaving them in a situation of uncertainty and defenselessness in which they live and work without papers. Finally, they remember that you cannot expel them without examining their situation, either because they signed international conventions on the matter. His forced return would put them in danger. The local authorities reply that the vast majority came to work.
As in many cases in Israel, what happened in Tel Aviv has become a throwing weapon for supporters and opponents of Justice Minister Yariv Levin’s change plan to weaken the Supreme Court (TS). “If anyone had any doubts about why judicial reform is so important, they received an overwhelming response today. The Government promoted and the Knesset enacted many laws aimed at dealing with the phenomenon of illegal infiltrators but time and again the Supreme Court annulled these measures Levin accuses.
In the opposition, they defend the work of the TS and hold Netanyahu responsible, who has governed except for a year and a half since 2009. And they recall that the prime minister gave in in 2018 to pressure from his bases by annulling the agreement with the UN that he himself had announced hours before as “the best possible” and “unprecedented”. The formula then was that 16,250 immigrants would be legalized in Israel and the other 16,250 would be welcomed in other countries. Today, Netanyahu declared that it was “a bad solution.”
