http://failedmessiah.typepad.com/failed_messiahcom/2012/07/elderly-african-refugee-attacked-and-beaten-in-jerusalem-678.html#tp
Elderly African Refugee Attacked And Beaten In Jerusalem
Shmarya Rosenberg • FailedMessiah.com
A 68-year-old refugee from Eritrea man was reportedly seriously injured by drunk youths who beat the man on Agrippas Street near downtown Jerusalem early Friday morning. A 23-year-old man who tried help the man fend off his attackers was also beaten.
Citing the news site Walla, the Times of Israel reported that the Eritrean refugee was “badly beaten all over his body.” The younger man, who works in a bakery located near the site of the attack, was “punched several times in the face.”
Both men were taken to the Hadassah Ein-Kerem Hospital.
Last month, still unidentified arsonists set fire to an occupied apartment on Jaffa Road. The ten African refugees inside managed to escape. Four of them, all Eritreans, were treated for smoke inhalation. Graffiti spray-painted above a door of the apartment read, “Get out of the neighborhood.”
In May, an anti-African-refugee riot broke out in South Tel Aviv during a right wing anti-African-refugee demonstration attended by rightist and Orthodox politicians. Shops were looted and Africans were attacked. Smaller isolated attacks took place earlier in the month and in the days following the riot.
In late April, South Tel Aviv apartments housing African refugees and a daycare serving their children were firebombed.
No known arrests were made in any of these attacks.
According to the Times of Israel, on Sunday Israel’s Ministry of the Interior reported that the number of Africans illegally entering Israel from the Sinai peninsula had dramatically been reduced in June after Israel began a program to round up and deport Africans who entered Israel illegally, rewarding those who agree to deportation with small financial grants and air tickets home. Those who did not agree to be deported are being held in prison or in detention camps.
http://www.timesofisrael.com/drunken-youths-beat-elderly-eritrean-man-in-jerusalem/
A 68-year-old Eritrean man was severely beaten by drunken youths on Jerusalem’s Agrippas Street early Friday morning. A 23-year-old man who tried to assist him was also attacked.
The Eritrean migrant was “badly beaten all over his body,” while the younger man, an employee of a nearby bakery, had been “punched several times in the face,” Israeli news site Walla quoted an MDA medic as saying.
“We were all shocked,” the medic, Hagit Farkash, added.
The two men were taken to The Hadassah University Hospital in Ein-Kerem for treatment.
It was the second time in recent months that migrants were targeted in Jerusalem, which is home to a small but growing African community, mostly centered near the city’s Mahane Yehuda outdoor market.
Last month, arsonists set fire to an apartment housing African migrants on Jaffa Road. Ten people were pulled out of the apartment, and four Eritreans were treated for smoke inhalation.
Graffiti was also found spray-painted above a door of the apartment, saying, “Get out of the neighborhood.”
Violence targeting African migrants in Israel has mostly subsided in recent weeks after peaking in May, when scores of demonstrators rallied in Tel Aviv for the deportation of the estimated 60,000-70,000 strong migrant community in the country.
On Sunday, the Interior Ministry reported that the number of Africans illegally crossing Israel’s southern border had dropped dramatically in June, following the recent initiative to deport migrants and offer cash incentives and flights to those who leave voluntarily.
A border fence under construction along the Israel-Egypt border is also intended to stem the flow of migrants from Africa.
Joshua Davidovich and Gabe Fisher contributed to this report.
Received on Fri Jul 06 2012 - 09:47:47 EDT
