Violence Between Eritreans and Police Exposes Immigration Tensions in Israel

The unprecedented violence in south Tel Aviv on Saturday between two rival Eritrean groups and between the Eritreans and Israeli police has brought to the forefront the issue of Israel’s treatment of African refugees, one neglected by the authorities in recent years.

Israeli emergency services treated over 150 people injured in the fighting, including 30 police officers.

The clashes broke out between rival groups opposing and supporting the Eritrean government near a venue set to host an event organized by the Eritrean Embassy marking 30 years of rule by President Isaias Afwerki. Opponents of the regime received police permission to hold a demonstration protesting the event, despite warnings by local Eritrean community leaders that this would lead to violence.

Demonstrators broke through the police barricades and clashes quickly began between the two groups and escalated, with the police intervening forcefully. Stun grenades, tear gas, and other crowd dispersal methods were used, including live fire from police. In addition to the high number of injuries, there was significant property damage, with police and other vehicles damaged and many businesses vandalized.

The scenes rekindled debate on the fate of asylum seekers in Israel, a country based on Jewish immigration from around the world. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu convened a special ministerial team on Sunday to examine “measures to be taken against illegal infiltrators who took part in the disturbances, including steps toward deportation.”

In the meeting, Netanyahu said that those directly involved in the clashes should be deported immediately, and ordered a plan to remove all illegal African migrants from Israel.

According to the Israeli Immigration Policy Center, there are almost 22,000 Eritrean refugees in Israel, making up most of the 31,000 African refugees in the country. Many Eritreans fled their country, which has one of the world’s worst human rights records, to avoid lifetime military conscription, which humanitarian organizations have often termed “modern slavery.”

Between 2005 and 2012, tens of thousands of African refugees fleeing wars and repressive regimes arrived in Israel, many after being trafficked through Egypt and then abandoned on the border. Most of them settled in south Tel Aviv, in an impoverished enclave that has since become the focal point for many anti-immigration activists. Israeli residents in those areas complain of increased crime there, including a high number of rapes.

The influx of African refugees, which reached over 60,000 at its peak, resulted in a public backlash. Israel notoriously takes a great deal of time to examine requests for refugee status, sometimes neglecting such requests altogether. This has enabled many Eritreans who support the regime and do not need refugee status to enter Israel.

The situation of African migrants is the result of a 15-year-long failure. This is a community in terrible distress. On the one hand, the state recognized the legality of their stay in Israel, and on the other, it does not legalize their status.

“The situation of African migrants is the result of a 15-year-long failure,” Tali Ehrenthal, a social worker and executive director of ASSAF, the Aid Organization for Refugees and Asylum Seekers in Israel, told The Media Line.

“This is a community in terrible distress. On the one hand, the state recognized the legality of their stay in Israel, and on the other, it does not legalize their status,” she said.

Ehrenthal said that most Eritreans currently in Israel would be eligible for refugee status, with only a small number of them supporting the regime.

“Israel, a country that was created as an asylum for Jews, has become a country that champions the cruel treatment of refugees, denying them their basic rights and alienating them from society,” she said.

However, Yonatan Jakubowicz, a lawyer and founder of the Israeli Immigration Policy Center, said it is often difficult to determine to which camp the migrants belong, and Israeli authorities are hesitant to undertake the task.

“The country clearly hasn’t done enough, but it cannot be that supporters of the regime claim their lives are in danger. This is absurd,” Jakubowicz told The Media Line.

The organizations that claim that [the migrants have a place here] are the same progressive, left-wing organizations that have allowed for a massive influx of Muslim immigrants into Europe. We will not allow this to happen in Israel.

For those who have sought the deportation of the migrants for years, the weekend’s events further justify their view.

“The organizations that claim that [the migrants have a place here] are the same progressive, left-wing organizations that have allowed for a massive influx of Muslim immigrants into Europe. We will not allow this to happen in Israel,” Israeli lawmaker Almog Cohen, from the hard-right Otzma Yehudit (Jewish Power) party, told The Media Line.

“They forget that there are citizens here who want to live, and they forget that the Jews only have one country,” Cohen said.

In 2010, Israel began constructing a barrier along the border with Egypt in order to stop the influx of illegal African immigrants, often referred to as “infiltrators.” Completed in 2012, it is considered a success. According to the Organization of Economic Cooperation and Development, there have been no illegal border crossings since 2017.

The debate is not only about Israel’s haphazard treatment of the African refugees, it also calls into question the role of the courts in deciding their fate.

Some critics of Israel’s migration policy say the courts have limited the government’s ability to clamp down on such immigrants. Those critics often support the government’s plans to reform the judicial system, which have caused significant public criticism.

“When the Knesset tried to legislate laws to deport the migrants, the High Court struck down those laws,” Cohen said.

Various attempts at deportation in recent years by governments mostly led by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu have been met with rejections by the courts, which say Israel must adhere to international norms on the treatment of refugees.

For supporters of the judicial reforms, the issue is an example of how the courts intervene excessively in the work of the executive branch, the government.

The High Court has made it difficult for the country to tackle the problem. This issue is one of the main reasons that there is public backing for judicial reform.

“There is no other precedent in which a large majority of the parliament approves laws and the court revokes them repeatedly,” Jakubowicz said.

“The High Court has made it difficult for the country to tackle the problem. This issue is one of the main reasons that there is public backing for judicial reform.”

Opponents of the overhaul use it as an example of how the court protects human rights in a country that lacks a constitution or other checks and balances.

At one point, Israel tried to detain the African migrants in a detention center in southern Israel for an indeterminate period. In 2018, the state tried to encourage them to leave for other African countries by offering them cash incentives. The courts struck down both those attempts, as well as a more recent attempt called the “deposit law,” in which a migrant would be forced to deposit 20% of his salary into a fund, to be received only upon leaving the country or obtaining refugee status in Israel.

In the meeting held by Netanyahu on Sunday, he also singled out the High Court as the reason the problem has not been solved.

“In the end, we have to look at the benefit of our own citizens,” Cohen said. “The south of Tel Aviv has been occupied by infiltrators with a very different culture than ours, who do not comply with the Israeli experience and law.”

Ehrenthal said the state has avoided speedy treatment of refugee status requests because it would have to acknowledge that many of the Africans are indeed refugees. For years, Netanyahu and others have referred to them as “economic immigrants,” who want to stay in Israel simply for work.

“These people obviously cannot be deported back to Eritrea, and Israel itself recognizes the dangers posed to Eritreans there and therefore has not done so,” Ehrenthal said. “It is high time that Israel examines these asylum requests, especially if the government is so concerned over this.”

Cohen acknowledged that Israel’s response time to refugee requests has lagged, but said, “If we can encourage them to emigrate from here, that is preferred, but if not, then yes, we need to deport all these infiltrators and those looking for work. If they can prove they are asylum seekers, that is another issue and that needs to be taken care of.”

Data from the Population and Immigration Authority shows that almost 4,000 requests for refugee status were submitted in 2022, while a further 3,000 were in various stages of processing. There was no information on the status of the requests or on how many were approved or denied.

More than 2,000 Eritreans left Israel voluntarily that year, a 50% increase from 2021, the report said.

“I hope the government wakes up and realizes this problem cannot be neglected anymore,” Jakubowicz said.