Week after attacks, another African residence firebombed

Mya Guarnieri Jaradat By Mya Guarnieri Jaradat May 5, 2012 | Edit

Just a week after an Israeli threw Molotov cocktails at four apartments that are home to African refugees and an African kindergarten in the Shapira neighborhood of South Tel Aviv, another residence has been attacked with firebombs. 

Two Molotov cocktails were hurled at the home of Nigerian immigrants in the HaTikva neighborhood in South Tel Aviv on Saturday night, according to Maariv (Hebrew). The firebombs did not penetrate the structure, which is located near the HaTikva market. No injuries were reported and no arrests have been made in connection with the incident.

The 20-year-old Israeli who was arrested in connection with last week’s attacks on the African community is expected to appear in court today. Police believe that the attacks were racially motivated and that the suspect intended to drive Africans from the neighborhood; the suspect has been arrested in the past for throwing eggs at a Sudanese refugee.

The past several years have seen Jewish Israelis in impoverished south Tel Aviv neighborhoods growing increasingly angry about the presence of foreigners. Locals have held a number of protests calling for the deportation of Africans; migrants and their children have been targeted in a number of violent attacks. Several south Tel Aviv schools have barred non-Israeli children from enrolling.

Jewish Israeli residents of South Tel Aviv say that the government is dumping the problem of refugees on their neighborhoods and that the area lacks the resources to cope.

While Africans are frightened by recent events, they have also expressed compassion for Jewish Israelis and agree with locals’ statements that the government must address the areas’ issues. African residents of South Tel Aviv have called on their Israeli neighbors to meet and discuss the problems and to come up with a solution together.

Haggai Matar contributed to this report.

Mya Guarnieri Jaradat

Mya Guarnieri Jaradat is a writer and independent journalist based in South Florida after almost a decade in Israel/Palestine. Her book, The Unchosen: The Lives of Israel's New Others (Pluto Press) was shortlisted for the Jewish Quarterly Wingate Prize. Her reportage and commentary has been published in The Nation, The NY Times, Haaretz, Le Monde Diplomatique, Al Jazeera English, The Guardian and many other outlets. Her essays and fiction have appeared in Slate, Guernica, the Jewish Quarterly, Narrative, and The Kenyon Review. She is currently working on a memoir.

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