Eli Yishai visit detention camps for Asylum Seekers in the south (photo: Yotam Ronen / Activestills.org)
Prepare yourselves. Last May, when it was last announced that an Eritrean citizen raped an Israeli woman, Interior Minister Eli Yishai responded by placing thousands of asylum seekers, among them children, rape and torture victims and the elderly in administrative detention, all in accordance with Israel’s Prevention of Infiltration Law. In the wake of the horrifying rape that took place near Tel Aviv’s Central Bus Station, one can only guess what will happen next.
Yishai began publishing libelous remarks on his personal Facebook page, while Shas’ shelved hate-filled campaign against foreigners [Hebrew] coincidentally appeared in Yedioth Ahronoth and on Ynet’s homepage, alongside the report on the sickening act.
In 2011, Israel Police reported 3,795 cases of sexual offenses. We will be the first to say that each of these appalling cases deserves to be featured as the main headline in every newspaper, and certainly deserves a response from Israel’s ministers. Had Ynet bothered to feature other cases of rape in its main headline, we might have suspected that the paper actually cares about women’s rights. Had Eli Yishai bothered to denounce acts of rape committed by Israelis from time to time, we might actually begin to think that he cares about a woman who is brutally raped.
A Shas campaign poster that reads: “Shas – my home, Sudan – their home.” (image: Shas campaign photo)
However, Yishai has never expressed concern regarding acts of sexual offenses committed by Israelis. When sexual offenses committed only by asylum seekers make waves in the media and among politicians, someone might believe that women’s rights do not exactly concern those who are doing all the shouting.
Our team has been devastated by the horrific events of this latest war – the atrocities committed by Hamas in Israel and the massive retaliatory Israeli attacks on Gaza. Our hearts are with all the people and communities facing violence.
We are in an extraordinarily dangerous era in Israel-Palestine. The bloodshed unleashed by these events has reached extreme levels of brutality and threatens to engulf the entire region. Hamas’ murderous assault in southern Israel has devastated and shocked the country to its core. Israel’s retaliatory bombing of Gaza is wreaking destruction on the already besieged strip and killing a ballooning number of civilians. Emboldened settlers in the West Bank, backed by the army, are seizing the opportunity to escalate their attacks on Palestinians.
This escalation has a very clear context, one that +972 has spent the past 13 years covering: Israeli society’s growing racism and militarism, the entrenched occupation, and an increasingly 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 the leading media voice of this movement, a desperately needed platform where Palestinian and Israeli journalists and activists can report on and analyze what is happening, guided by humanism, equality, and justice. Join us.