Fresh attack on Eritrean pub vandalized in anti-immigrant riot

By +972 Magazine June 16, 2012 | Edit

A firecracker was hurled into an Eritrean bar in south Tel Aviv late Saturday night, the latest incident in mounting violence against the African asylum seeker community in Israel.

On Eritrean customer was injured in Saturday night’s incident. The bar, located in the Hatikva neighborhood of Tel Aviv, has been the target of several attacks in recent months, most notoriously on May 23, when a demonstration against the growing African population in Israel turned violent. The bar was one of several refugee-owned properties that were damaged, its windows smashed and contents looted. Read more on that night’s events here.

Fresh attack on Eritrean pub vandalized in anti-immigrant riot

Amin, the owner of an Eritrean bar in south Tel Aviv, speaks to police on Saturday night (photo: Activestills)

Sigal Rozen, the public policy coordinator of the Hotline for Migrant Workers, recounted on her Facebook wall what she told the police in the aftermath of Saturday night’s attack:

I tried to explain to the policeman that Aminey suffers abuses and physical damages to his pub on a daily basis since the demonstration… the policeman answered: “It is not only him, it is all the Eritreans around here”… Aminey begs us to get him out of Israel, truly believing that it is only a matter of time before he will be murdered.

Amin, an owner of an Eritrean bar in south Tel Aviv, points to the marks left by a stun grenade thrown into his bar (photo: Activestills)

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TEST TEST GAL Our team has been devastated by the horrific events of this latest war. The world is reeling from Israel’s unprecedented onslaught on Gaza, inflicting mass devastation and death upon besieged Palestinians, as well as the atrocious attack and kidnappings by Hamas in Israel on October 7. Our hearts are with all the people and communities facing this violence. We are in an extraordinarily dangerous era in Israel-Palestine. The bloodshed has reached extreme levels of brutality and threatens to engulf the entire region. Emboldened settlers in the West Bank, backed by the army, are seizing the opportunity to intensify their attacks on Palestinians. The most far-right government in Israel’s history is ramping up its policing of dissent, using the cover of war to silence Palestinian citizens and left-wing Jews who object to its policies. This escalation has a very clear context, one that +972 has spent the past 14 years covering: Israeli society’s growing racism and militarism, entrenched occupation and apartheid, and a normalized siege on Gaza. We are well positioned to cover this perilous moment – but we need your help to do it. This terrible period will challenge the humanity of all of those working for a better future in this land. Palestinians and Israelis are already organizing and strategizing to put up the fight of their lives. Can we count on your support? +972 Magazine is a leading media voice of this movement, a desperately needed platform where Palestinian and Israeli journalists, activists, and thinkers can report on and analyze what is happening, guided by humanism, equality, and justice. Join us.

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