Foreign Policy, August 19, 2011
The media has been quick to depict the Israeli tent protests as a middle class movement. But there are other groups taking part: Palestinians, low-income Jewish Israelis, migrant workers, and African refugees. While all of these groups face a number of serious problems—as does Israel’s middle class—one was living outdoors in Tel Aviv long before the first protest tent was pitched.
Talk a walk through south Tel Aviv’s Levinsky Park on any day of the year and you’ll see dozens of African refugees sleeping on the grass. But they’re not here in protest. These men and teenage boys are homeless.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu calls them “infiltrators.” The state, however, has reported to the U.N. that about 90 percent of Israel’s approximately 30,000 asylum seekers are indeed refugees. Most come from Eritrea—a country gripped by a brutal dictatorship, fraught with religious persecution—and war-torn Sudan. Some have escaped genocide in Darfur. Many flee first to Egypt, where they might spend several months or years working. From there, they walk to Israel, making making a treacherous journey through the Sinai. A significant number of the refugees are “unaccompanied minors”—teenagers who made this trip alone.
Continue reading “Israel’s tent protests symptom of larger identity crisis”
