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Mob attacks African asylum seekers in Tel Aviv

Posted by Christopher Coen on May 24, 2012

After weeks of intensified incitement of the public against African asylum seekers by top Israeli right-wing and central right-wing government officials, mobs have now begun attacking the asylum seekers in the streets of Tel Aviv. Yesterday a mob attacked asylum seekers’ businesses and homes, threw stones at houses, broke windows of shops and houses, attacked random black people on the streets, looted two stores, and attacked a car packed with Africans, threatening the passengers and shattering the car’s windows. Police arrested seventeen people, but the attacks went on for hours. In an article in +972mag a journalist and political activist explains how the mob also besieged him, another journalist and a photographer:

It started out as a fairly quiet demonstration – or demonstrations, to be precise. One small demonstration took place in Shapira, my neighborhood, where several weeks ago an Israeli young man threw Molotov cocktails into asylum seekers’ homes. The dominant discourse here was, as is typical of the neighborhood, more moderate, and focused on blaming the government (and not the asylum seekers) for local hardships in south Tel Aviv.

…It all started with one woman who came at me out of nowhere, and started screaming: “You throw stones at soldiers! Shame on you! Get the hell out of here!” I tried to say that I have never thrown stones at anybody in my life, but she was not exactly in the mood for dialogue. “You lie! I see you every week on television throwing stones at soldiers and calling them Nazis!”

From this point on everything happened extremely fast. The one woman turned into two, then a group of ten people, which kept on growing. I tried to explain that this was a misunderstanding, that I never attacked any soldier, that I am a resident of Shapira and a journalist covering the protest. But I was talking to myself. Nobody was listening…

…I knew no one would come to my aid. Faced with the angry mob and seeing more people coming from behind me and looking for action – I chose flight…

…I was walking back towards my part of town when I heard a massive cry, looked back, and was horrified to see the mass – about 1,000 people strong – racing forward in my direction, screaming “Sudanese to Sudan!”…

…A car packed with Africans was caught in the crowd, its windows shattered, its riders threatened and saved by police. Seeing this from afar I decided it was time to go home, but reports kept flowing in: the mob turned back into Hatikva and attacked asylum seekers’ businesses and homes, looted at least one store, and attacked random black people on the streets. Seventeen were arrested, but the attacks went on for hours. An Activestills photographer present on the scene later told me that the pictures he took tell only a small portion of the story. He was threatened not to take pictures of looters, and saw so many stones thrown at houses and people beaten (mostly quite lightly) on the streets – that he couldn’t possibly take pictures of it all.

Morning is now up, broken windows of shops and houses need mending, and the peace is somewhat restored. At the end of the day, we must remember that most of the people in our southern neighborhoods largely live together in peace. Many try to bridge gaps and find solutions. Many on both sides know that their enemy is not the asylum seekers or the local Israeli population but the government – which is both creating this impossibly flammable situation and throwing burning matches into it. But this is not the end of the story. It is only the beginning. Read more here

More media articles: Independent journalist and editor Noam Sheizaf explains the poverty underlying the Tel Aviv neighborhoods where politicians are trying to whip up and inflame populist hysteria before elections within year or so.

Jerusalem-based journalist and writer Mya Guarnieri explains the connection between profits and anti-African incitement. The Interior Ministry, whose head has been a ringleader in the incitement, has been busy taking fees from tens of thousands of migrant workers for work permits, while denying African asylum seekers the ability to work. This, while in 2010 the government embarked on a campaign against asylum seekers, including advertisements in which actors claimed that foreigners had taken their jobs.

Posted in right-wing, xenophobia/nationalism/isolationism | Tagged: , , , , , , , | Leave a Comment »

Walking through Tel Aviv neighborhood in search of African asylum-seeking “criminals” — finding none

Posted by Christopher Coen on May 21, 2012

Following dire warnings from Israeli government leaders and intense media reporting of rising crime in the south Tel Aviv neighborhood of Shapira, supposedly caused by African asylum-seekers, a journalist set out on a walk through the neighborhood to see for herself the disruption caused by the asylum-seeking so-called “infiltrators”. Yet, she finds the streets strangely calm, the parks clean, and people going about their daily business. Her article is at Haaretz:

A few weeks ago, in a fit of hatred, someone, or some more than one, threw Molotov cocktails at a kindergarten and apartments used by foreign workers in south Tel Aviv’s Shapira neighborhood, “causing significant property damage but no injuries or loss of life,” in journalese.

This week I took a walk in Shapira. It was Wednesday, the day after the demonstrators returned – some protesting government policy on labor migrants, others against the migrants themselves and still others expressing solidarity with them and denouncing racism…

…I am no stranger to Shapira, having visited it on a few occasions to walk around, to check out housing options, to visit friends, but this was the first time I came to see “the other.”…

…The parks are clean. The main park, built after a battle by residents, on the site of a transformer station, is enviable – well-maintained lawns, a beautiful, shaded wood, the latest sports and playground equipment.

“Well, the city makes sure to keep it clean because of the situation, that’s why it’s clean,” a… neighborhood activist says. We’ll call him B.

The park is calm this afternoon, and no one is sleeping on the slide – “You come with your kid and oops, someone’s sleeping there,” says B. It happens in central Tel Aviv, too.

An African woman, smiling and nicely dressed, pushes three sweet, cared-for children. The baby, adorable in a white dress, laughs at her siblings…

…I get on my bike to look for the things that N. and B. mentioned: people living in the street, cooking in the street, urinating and defecating in the street and in parks; people gathering in large groups; people drinking.

I believe N. and B., but I can’t find evidence of such behavior. The neighborhood seems empty, sleepy… Read more here

Yet Israeli government officials and the police claim that the African asylum-seekers account for 40 percent of Tel Aviv’s crimes. Really? According to another article at +972mag police crime data shows that the crime rate among foreigners in Israel stood at 2.04 percent in 2010, compared with 4.99 percent among Israelis:

Several Sudanese and Eritrean nationals were recently arrested in two separate cases involving the rape of Israeli women and the murder of an Eritrean woman. The media extensively covered these horrible crimes, followed by a long line of politicians quoting frightening police claims that Africans account for 40 percent of Tel Aviv’s crimes. Those politicians are led by Interior Minister Eli Yishai, who dared to say in an interview this week that most “African infiltrators are criminals.”

The press similarly reported in early May that “asylum seekers are involved in 40 percent of crimes,” relying on police figures recently presented to the government. This statistic is shocking, but not as shocking as the fact that senior Israel Police officers are willing to tell lies in an effort to gain a chunk of the huge budget that the government has allotted to the war against African refugees.

Real police data, presented in a meeting held by the Knesset Committee on Foreign Workers on March 19, indicate that the crime rate among foreigners in Israel stood at 2.24 percent in 2011 (1,223 criminal cases out of a total of 54,497 foreigners)…

The 2011 data on Israeli crime has not yet been published, but according to police data reported to the Knesset, the crime rate among the general population in Israel stood at 4.99 percent in 2010. This figure demonstrates that the general crime rate in Israel is more than double that of Africans in Israel… Read more here

Posted in police, right-wing, xenophobia/nationalism/isolationism | Tagged: , , , , , , | Leave a Comment »

In Boise 400 Refugee Women Lose Breast Cancer Screenings

Posted by Christopher Coen on February 1, 2012

"An investigation..."

***UPDATE*** February 3, 2012 — Washington Post announces that Komen Foundation ambiguously reverses its decision, here.

Due to a new Susan B. Komen for the Cure (the pink ribbon group) policy to halt funding for any group “under investigation by federal, state or local authorities”, 400 refugee women in Boise will now no longer receive critical annual breast cancer screenings, unless new funding is found. Planned Parenthood was receiving funds, now cut, from the Susan B. Komen for the Cure Foundation for 170,000 clinical breast exams nationwide over the past five years) US House of Representatives right-wing Republicans recently began a politically motivated “investigation” of Planned Parenthood’s so-called use of public funds for abortion. This policy now needlessly pits two leading women’s health groups against each other by rewarding a congressman for merely starting an investigation – no matter the facts in the case, or if there is even any basis for the investigation (that’s like rewarding malicious gossiping and rumor mongering or being found guilty simply for being accused of something). No doubt this unwise Komen policy will affect many more refugee women than the 400 in Boise. An article at Crosscut explains:

Because a Florida congressman demands an investigation of abortion spending, some 400 women in rural areas of Clallam County in Washington face the loss of breast cancer screening. So do another 400 in the Boise, Idaho, area, but they face a worse dilemma: They’re refugee women from Africa and Asia, relocated to Idaho through the International Rescue Committee, and most lack the language skills to look for mammogram providers and other breast cancer support on their own.

For years, Planned Parenthood of the Great Northwest has used funds from the huge Susan B. Komen for the Cure Foundation to provide cancer screening treatments to women in Clallam County and in the Boise/Twin Falls area, administered by Planned Parenthood’s Puget Sound affiliate in Seattle. But as of this week, under congressional pressure over Planned Parenthood’s abortion assistance, the Komen Foundation has ended its contributions to Planned Parenthood’s breast cancer screening programs. Nineteen of Planned Parenthood’s 83 affiliates will be affected by the cut, including the two in Idaho and Clallam County. The organization says Komen funds have provided 170,000 clinical breast exams nationwide.

 “Komen got bullied by anti-choice politicians,” says Kristin Tlundberg of Planned Parenthood of the Great Northwest, which supports clinics in Washington, Idaho and Alaska, from its office in Seattle. “It’s a shame these two incredibly strong women’s organizations, both working to prevent cancer, have been forced into opposing positions by anti-choice forces determined to harm Planned Parenthood.”… Read more here

Posted in Boise, Congress, funding, health, right-wing, women | Tagged: , , , , , | Leave a Comment »

Reduction of Manchester Family Reunion Cases, Why Didn’t International Institute Help With Problems?

Posted by Christopher Coen on January 11, 2012

Yesterday New Hampshire had its Republican primary, which focused more attention on Manchester’s refugee controversy. Its seems that the International Institute of New England views any and all criticism of its performance as the work of “the political right” (even though a democratic Alderman spearheaded the criticism). On the other side we have people falsely blaming refugees for economic woes. It’s clear that this combination of ignorance and polarization serves no one. A moratorium or reduction in family reunion cases also doesn’t make sense, as refugee families will find another way to reunite. Here are snippets from an interesting, albeit long, article in New American Media:

…Ahmed settled with his wife and two children in Manchester, New Hampshire, one of 50 Iraqi families in a city that over the last decade has become home to more than 2,100 refugees from all over the world.

Now economic pressures are forcing city officials to question whether Manchester can continue to be a destination city for refugees.

The year after Ahmed arrived, city officials here began debating whether to impose a moratorium on the arrival of more refugees. At issue was a financial question: In the midst of a recession, could Manchester afford to continue to absorb 300 people a year into its population of about 100,000 people?…

…[Democratic Alderman Patrick Long] together with Mayor Ted Gatsas, was a force behind the calls for a moratorium on refugees, which resulted in a compromise to reduce the number of refugees allowed in the city from 300 down to 200 in 2012…

…Long says the city does not have the infrastructure or social services to tend to those communities’ needs.

“I found myself putting out little fires every day,” he explained. “Somebody needs a ride to the doctor, somebody needs food, somebody needs a place to live.”…

…“My objective is for the immigrants to thrive,” he said. “I’m angry that the finances to help the new arrivals are not being used efficiently.”

Critics like Long say resettlement agencies, which receive federal funds to bring refugees here, only follow up with refugees for a few months and do not get involved in long term issues such as quality housing.

As an example, he cited a bedbug infestation that affected a refugee community living in an apartment complex. “We emptied all the apartments, people moved temporarily, we cleaned,” he said. “But the institute never showed up,” he said, referring to the non-profit organization the International Institute of New England, which works with the U.S. Refugee Admissions Program to bring refugees to Manchester.

Carolyn Benedict-Drew, CEO of the International Institute of New England, said…that the city’s responsibility is to take care of housing for everyone, regardless of where they come from.

 Further, she said, the city hasn’t provided her agency with any hard facts about the costs it takes to care for the refugees.

She denies claims that refugees burden the city with health care needs and social services, and said this is something the political right is trying to make an issue out of….

… Tika Acharya, a volunteer at the Bhutanese Community of New Hampshire, a coalition that helps new arrivals…opposes the moratorium, saying that it doesn’t make sense from a practical point of view.

“If they send my sister to another city, I would go get her and bring her here,” he said.

Geraldine Kirega, the director of the Women for Women Coalition and a refugee from Tanzania…said that the city’s argument for a moratorium may have been well intended, but they didn’t follow up on their good intentions.

“They said they wanted to have better housing and resources to improve the situation. They haven’t taken action,” she said. “They haven’t shown what they’ve done to improve.”…

…Eva Castillo, who works for the Massachusetts Immigrant and Refugee Advocacy Coalition in Manchester, says she understands where the city is coming from.

“This is not about immigration,” said Castillo, who is originally from Venezuela. “It is about resources.”

Castillo, who says she is the only advocate of her kind in the city who is working to bring awareness about refugee issues to Anglos, says she is overwhelmed by the community’s needs.

But perceptions about refugees and immigrants in the city are also clouded by bias and fear, she adds.

“The amount of services they use is minimal but there’s the idea that they use more of them,” she said. “It is not racism. It’s ignorance.”

The economic downturn and the difficulty finding jobs have exacerbated negative perceptions of refugees here—despite the fact that Manchester’s unemployment rate (4.5 percent) is lower than the national average (8.5 percent), according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics.

“Unfortunately, people are facing economic pressures. Those who live here and are having a hard time finding a job see all these new people arrive and they have the wrong impression that refugees come here and get free houses and cars,” Castillo said…

…For Ahmed and his family, the U.S. economic recession is a daily reality they understand all too well.

The entire family arrived in Manchester on the middle of the winter to piercingly cold weather they had never experienced before and without proper clothes. “We didn’t know where to go,” said Ahmed. “We didn’t know how to call Iraq. We had no TV, no Internet.”

They said that for 10 days, they felt completely isolated…

…Haytham Aukira, another refugee from Iraq who has been in the United States for more than 11 years, has become one of Ahmed’s good friends….

…he says he doesn’t disagree with having a moratorium on refugees…

…“The city should be able to say how many people can come, not Washington, D.C.,” Aukira said.

For people like Benedict-Drew, that would be like opening a Pandora’s box that could spread to the rest of the country fueled by some groups’ anti-immigrant sentiment… Read more here

Posted in employment/jobs for refugees, housing, housing, substandard, Iraqi, moratorium / restriction, Nepali Bhutanese, New Hampshire, right-wing, State Department | Tagged: , , , , , , , | 4 Comments »

Senate bill to extend SSI to elderly, disabled refugees conditioned upon security oversight hearing

Posted by Christopher Coen on October 18, 2011

Freshman Sen. Rand Paul finally ended his two-week hold on extending Supplemental Security Income to elderly and disabled refugees, by demanding that the Senate Judiciary Committee’s immigration panel hold an oversight hearing on the entry of two terrorism suspects to the country via the refugee program. The SSI benefits expired for about 5,600 elderly and disabled refugees on Sept. 30. A POLITICO article has more:

Ending a two-week standoff, freshman Sen. Rand Paul agreed to lift his hold on a bill extending aid to thousands of elderly and disabled refugees living in the United States.

The Kentucky Republican allowed the bipartisan bill to advance after Democratic leaders promised to hold a congressional hearing into how individuals are selected for refugee status and request an investigation into why two terrorism suspects were admitted to the U.S. through a refugee program, an aide said…

…As part of the agreement with Paul, Sen. Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.), the bill’s author and chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee’s immigration panel, will hold an oversight hearing examining refugee resettlement in the United States. Paul will be among those testifying. And Schumer and Paul will jointly request the inspectors general at the Homeland Security, State and Health and Human Services departments investigate why the Iraqi terrorism suspects were allowed to enter the country... Read more here

Yet, we already know why the terrorism suspects got through the security barriers. Prior to the December 2009 underwear bombing incident the Department of Homeland Security was not checking refugee applications against a broader set of security data, including fingerprints. So, what then does Sen. Paul intend to do with this oversight hearing?

Posted in Congress, Dept of Homeland Security, disabled refugees, elderly refugees, Iraqi, right-wing, security/terrorism, SSI | Tagged: , , , , , , , | Leave a Comment »

Sen. Rand Paul blocks benefit funding bill for elderly & disabled refugees

Posted by Christopher Coen on October 4, 2011

Freshman Sen. Rand Paul, a Kentucky Republican and co-founder of the Senate Tea Party Caucus, is blocking the bill that would extend funding for one year for about 5,600 elderly and disabled refugees. The bill seeks to extend social security benefits for these refugees, many of whom have been unable to pass the US citizenship test due to language barriers associated with frailties. These refugees lost these meager benefits — used to pay basic living expenses — as of September 30th. An article in POLITICO tells more:

Freshman Sen. Rand Paul is blocking a bill that Senate leaders tried to pass by a voice vote Monday, delaying $36 million in benefits for elderly and disabled refugees, POLITICO has learned.

The funding ran out at the end of the fiscal year on Friday.

Paul, a Kentucky Republican and co-founder of the Senate Tea Party Caucus, placed a hold on the bill after Democratic leaders reached an agreement with other Republicans to offset the funding with fee increases for immigrants seeking visas.

In a statement to POLITICO on Tuesday, Paul confirmed he was blocking the bill over concerns the money could be used to aid domestic terrorists. Two alleged terrorists, who came to the U.S. through a refugee program and were receiving welfare benefits, were arrested this year in Paul’s hometown of Bowling Green, Ky.

“This incident alone raises serious questions about the system through which they came to the United States, and I am insisting on a full investigation on our practice of providing welfare to refugees,” Paul said. “Legislation of this importance should not be passed without sufficient debate and a presentation of the information found from this investigation.”…

…Schumer and other Democratic sponsors worked out a deal Friday with Sen. Tom Coburn (R-Okla.), who had blocked the legislation over concerns about costs. Coburn agreed to lift his hold after Democrats proposed a new $30 fee for individuals applying to enter the country through a visa lottery program. That fee would more than pay for the refugee benefits, cutting the deficit by $24 million.

But Paul’s hold was a surprise to even Schumer, who announced on the floor Monday that the Senate would pass the bill that night by a voice vote… Read more here

When I read this article I was expecting to discover that the reason Paul Rand was opposing the bill was a principled stand against fee increases, as just another type of tax. Naive me. Instead he risks putting vulnerable people out onto the streets as some form of protest in response to the US Department of Homeland Security letting two alleged terrorists resettle to Tennessee, even though the agency had information that should have prevented it. So, punish Homeland Security by abandoning elderly and disabled people?

Posted in disabled refugees, elderly refugees, funding, Kentucky, right-wing, SSI | Tagged: , , , , , , , , | Leave a Comment »

Caller threatens to bomb Murfreesboro, Tenn. mosque

Posted by Christopher Coen on September 7, 2011

An article in the AP reports that a Tennessee mosque struck by vandals and arsonists last year has now been the target of a bomb threat.

MURFREESBORO, Tenn. (AP) — Authorities say an unidentified man threatened to ignite a bomb inside a [Islamic Center of Murfreesboro] mosque in Tennessee on Sept. 11…

The Murfreesboro mosque…has seen vandals target signs at its new proposed site, which was also struck by arsonists last year who torched construction equipment that was being used to prepare the grounds. Read more here

A more detailed article is in the Daily News Journal.

Posted in alienation-isolation, anti-Islamic, Islamic, Murfreesboro/Shelbyville, right-wing, security/terrorism, Somali, Tennessee, unwelcoming communities | Tagged: , , , , , , , , | Leave a Comment »

European far-right groups attempt to distance themselves from violent acts

Posted by Christopher Coen on July 28, 2011

After the deadly events in Norway this week, in Oslo and on Utoya Island carried out by right-wing extremist Anders Behring Breivik, Europeans are taking a new look at threats to society posed by the right-wing. An article in the New York Times has an analysis:

…Nonviolent political parties can hardly be blamed for the violent actions of a terrorist or a homicidal person. But politicians have begun to question inflammatory speech in the debate over immigrants, which has helped fuel the rise of right-leaning politicians across Europe in recent years.

The head of the Social Democratic Party in Germany, Sigmar Gabriel, told the German news service dpa on Wednesday that a trend toward xenophobia and nationalism in the region had fostered the attacks in Norway. In a society where anti-Islamic sentiment and isolation were tolerated “naturally on the margins of society, there will be crazy people who feel legitimized in taking harder measures,” he said.

“The center of society has to make clear that there is no room for this with us, even for sanitized versions,” Mr. Gabriel said. “There is a deep feeling in society that the pendulum has swung too far toward individualism.”…

…Mr. Breivik’s 1,500-page manifesto, while full of calls for violence, also includes some passages that echo the concerns of mainstream political leaders about preserving national identity and values.

“So much of what he wrote could have been said by any right-wing politician,” said Daniel Cohn-Bendit, co-president of the Green bloc in the European Parliament. “A lot of arguments about immigrants and Islamic fundamentalism will now be much easier to question and to push back.”

The clearest evidence of a change in tone at this early stage may be the way anti-immigrant parties try to rein in their members. A member of the National Front, Jacques Coutela, was suspended for calling Mr. Breivik “an icon” on his blog. He replaced it with a note saying that he denounced Mr. Breivik’s actions…

…far-right groups have sought to distance themselves from Mr. Breivik and his actions, and violent acts in general…

Europol, the European Union’s police agency [has] created a task force to investigate threats in Scandinavia and links to extremist groups across Europe… Read more here

Posted in anti-Islamic, police, right-wing, security/terrorism, xenophobia/nationalism/isolationism | Tagged: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | Leave a Comment »

 
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