Dearest Lizzy,

inothernews:

“Under the flowering jacaranda trees in Tel Aviv’s Levinsky park, clusters of men lounge on the grass smoking cigarettes, making desultory conversation or dozing. A few perch on children’s swings, some push battered bicycles. A whiff of stale urine hangs in the air. Beneath the restless boredom, there is a new mood: wariness. Since an anti-migrant demonstration last week turned ugly and violent, these men – many of whom fled in fear from their homes in sub-Saharan Africa – are fearful once again. The display of naked racism in what is routinely described as a diverse and liberal city also shocked many Israelis. Around 1,000 people marched through an area of south Tel Aviv in which migrants are concentrated, chanting “blacks out” and holding signs calling for expulsion. Shops serving the migrant community were smashed up and looted; dark-skinned men were threatened. A member of the Israeli parliament told the crowd: “The Sudanese are a cancer in our body.” The protest followed a spate of reports in the Israeli media of a “crime wave” – including alleged rapes, assaults and robberies – blamed on migrants. Just a few days earlier the prime minister, Binyamin Netanyahu, had warned that a flood of “illegal infiltrators” was threatening Israel’s identity. In recent weeks, Molotov cocktails have been thrown at apartments housing African migrants. One firebomb was hurled into the yard of a kindergarten. “I’ve never seen anything like it before,” says Oscar Olivier, 45, who fled from Kinshasa 18 years ago. “It was a surprise, but in some ways it was also foreseeable. Some politicians have been orchestrating this, inciting violence and hatred, for months.””

—

The Guardian, “Levinsky Park Migrants Live In Fear After Tel Aviv Race Riots.”

The shame of Israel.