State-sanctioned pogrom in south Tel Aviv (Random Pottins)

From Random Pottins:

State-sanctioned pogrom in south Tel Aviv 

TIME was that the Hatikvah district of south Tel Aviv, its name shared with the Zionist anthem and meaning, ironically, "the Hope", was known for housing riots, juvenile delinquency and violent clashes with police. It is still a poor neighbourhood, evidently, but with Israeli politicians concerned that the public is turning from the national "security" obsession to concern about social issues, where better for them to start a racist campaign diverting discontent into mob violence against scapegoats?

Last night thousands of people, including imported thugs and their women cheerleaders, listened to right-wing politicians at a rally in Hatikvah quarter, blaming problems on the mainly African asylum seekers who have arrived in recent years.

After hearing from Likud politicians and those further to the Right the crowd turned on reporters identified as left-wing and unpatriotic by right-wing activists, and then surged out to beat African men and women on the street, and attack homes and shops. Police said later nine arrests had been made.

Miri Regev of the Likud party had described asylum seekers as a "cancer in our body," and promised to do everything "in order to bring them back to where they belong". His Likud colleague Danny Danon, who heads a lobby group campaigning against illegal immigration (not to be confused with Israel's illegal settlements) said the only solution to the problem would be to "begin talking about expulsion".

"We must expel the infiltrators from Israel. We should not be afraid to say the words 'expulsion now'," he was reported as saying.

... full story at Random Pottins.