By Tia Goldenberg, TEL
AVIV Israel
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Sunday he wants Eritrean migrants involved in a violent clash in Tel Aviv to be deported immediately and has ordered a plan to remove all of the country’s African migrants.
The remarks came a day
after bloody protests by rival groups of Eritreans in south
Tel Aviv left dozens of people injured. Eritreans, supporters and opponents of
Eritrea’s government, faced off with construction lumber, pieces of metal and
rocks, smashing shop windows and police cars. Israeli police in riot gear shot
tear gas, stun grenades and live rounds while officers on horseback tried to
control the protesters.
The violence on Saturday
returned to the fore the issue of migrants, which has long divided Israel. Its
resurgence comes as Israel is torn over Netanyahu’s judicial overhaul plan, and supporters cite the
migrant issue as a reason why the courts should be reined in, saying they have
stood in the way of pushing the migrants out.
“We want harsh measures
against the rioters, including the immediate deportation of those who took
part,” Netanyahu said in a special ministerial meeting called to deal with the
aftermath of the violence.
He requested that the ministers present
him with plans “for the removal of all the other illegal infiltrators,” and
noted in his remarks that the Supreme Court struck down some measures meant to
coerce the migrants to leave.
Under
international law, Israel cannot forcibly send migrants back to a country where
their life or liberty may be at risk.
Ahead of an official visit to
Cyprus, Netanyahu said the ministerial team was seeking to deport 1,000
supporters of the Eritrean government who were involved in Saturday’s violence.
“They have no claim to refugee status. They support this regime,” Netanyahu said. “If they support the regime so much, they would do well to return to their country of origin.”
About 25,000 African migrants live in Israel, mainly from Sudan
and Eritrea, who say they fled conflict or repression. Israel recognizes very
few as asylum seekers, seeing them overwhelmingly as economic migrants, and
says it has no legal obligation to keep them.
The country has tried a
variety of tactics to force them out, including sending some to a remote
prison, holding part of their wages until they agree to leave the country or
offering cash payments to those who agree to move to another country, somewhere
in Africa. Critics accuse the government of trying to coerce the migrants into
leaving.
Migrants’ supporters say
Israel, a country founded upon the ashes of the Holocaust and built up by
Jewish refugees, should welcome those seeking asylum. Opponents claim migrants
have brought crime to the low-income southern Tel Aviv neighborhoods where they
have settled.
On Sunday, Israel’s far-right
national security minister, Itamar Ben-Gvir, visited the site of the unrest,
voicing his support for the police and calling for those who broke the law to
be placed in detention until they are deported. “They don’t need to be here.
It’s not their place,” he said.
Some people heckled Ben-Gvir
as he walked with a police escort, telling him to “go home.”
Saturday’s clashes came as Eritrean government supporters marked the 30th anniversary of the current ruler’s rise to power, an event held near the Eritrean embassy in south Tel Aviv. Eritrea has one of the world’s worst human rights records and migrants in Israel and elsewhere say they fear death if they were to return.
Critics see Netanyahu’s judicial overhaul plan as a power grab meant to weaken
the courts and limit judicial oversight on government decisions and
legislation. Supporters say it is meant to restore power to elected legislators
and rein in what they say is an interventionist and liberal-leaning justice
system.
Similar protests involving
rival Eritrean groups have been also popping up in other countries.
On Saturday, Norway’s
second-largest city Bergen, witnessed clashes between supporters and opponents
of the Eritrean government during a rally commemorating the country’s
independence day. Norwegian authorities said government opponents threw bottles
and stones at rally participants.
Large numbers of police forces
with shields and visors fanned out on the streets, and parts of Bergen’s city
center were cordoned off because of the violence. Over 100 people were involved
in the clashes and at least three people were detained, while one person was
injured, Norwegian authorities said.
In early August, Swedish media
reported that about 1,000 protesters stormed an Eritrean festival in Stockholm,
the capital, setting booths and cars on fire and using rocks and sticks as
weapons, leaving at least 52 people injured and more than 100 people detained.
Eritera’s President Isaias Afwerki, 77, has been in power since 1993 after the country won independence from Ethiopia following a long guerrilla war.
There
have been no elections and no free media, and exit visas are required for
Eritreans to leave the country. Many young people are forced into military
service with no end date, human rights groups and United Nations experts say.
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