Friday morning December 24th 2010 on Rothchild Blvd. in Tel Aviv African refugees alongside Israelis protest the government’s lack of a cohesive policy regarding the handling of these “immigrants”. It is because of the Netanyahu governments lack of a policy that has lead to this present crisis. These demonstrations in support of African refugee rights have been building for sometime now as the Government is unable to deal with any serious issue until it becomes a full blown crisis. People wave signs “Equal Rights for Refugees”, ” We want Protection”, Freedom for All in God’s Land”, and No More Detention”. More on the march: “Some 1,300 people, including dozens of refugees, marched in Tel Aviv on Friday morning as part of a protest against the government’s plan to set up a detention facility for infiltrators. They were joined by dozens of children from local schools. Video provided exclusively by Steve Ornstein for Israelseen.
There have been counter demonstrations by some in the poorer communities that have felt the impact of this new population. The refugees often bring with them prostitution, disease, public drunkenness and violence. Some have called these demonstrators “racists” but they deny the charges suggesting that it is the Governments failure at not creating a clear policy in dealing with this new significant population fleeing African states for a variety of reasons, often because of persecution or just the desire for better economic opportunity, that has lead to this crisis in the neighborhoods. The reason many refugees are willing to risk crossing Egypt’s unfriendly borders illegally is because Israel provides great opportunity and general freedom to live and provide for a better future. However, this influx of “illegal” refugees into Israel is creating a situation that is causing chaos in the streets to an already small country in a hostile environment. No other countries so far, including the UN has stepped in to seriously address this situation.
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