Several hundred Eritrean asylum seekers demonstrated outside the US Embassy in Tel Aviv on Friday, to issue a plea for Washington to intervene to ease the problems they say they face in Israel.
Carrying signs saying “no deportations of asylum seekers” and “we need protection” among others, the asylum seekers said they believe that only Washington has the clout and is close enough to Israel to encourage the country to accept their asylum claims and ensure their protection from violence and racism within the country.
Waving an American flag on the beachfront promenade across the street from the embassy, Eritrean activist Haile Mengistab told The Jerusalem Post he believes that “the American government can put pressure on the Israeli government, which has stigmatized the entire Eritrean population [in Israel].”
Quoting anti-migrant statements made recently by Knesset MKs, Mengistab said “we are not cancers, we are not a national plague, we are not infected with AIDS. We want the American ambassador to help us, because they [the US] are a strong nation and they and Israel are like mother and son. They can convince the Israeli government to be hospitable to the Eritreans and give them asylum,” adding “we’re not here to demolish Israel’s Jewish character."
Eritreans are estimated to make up as much as 40,000 of the more than 60,000 illegal African migrants in Israel. Israel cannot legally deport them to Eritrea, because it is likely that they would face persecution if returned to the country, which has been ruled by a dictatorship since independence was achieved in 1993.
Nonetheless, tension has gripped the Eritrean community in recent months, because of the escalating anti-migrant rhetoric used by Israeli politicians, violence directed at Africans, and recent vows by Interior Minister Eli Yishai to explore ways to expel all African migrants from Israel, including the Eritreans. Such vows have been made against the backdrop of the ongoing deportation of Israel’s 700-1,500 strong South Sudanese and 500-1,500 Ivorian communities.
Mulugeta Tumughi, 24, said the demonstrators came to the embassy because “America is the strongest and most well-known country in world that has the power and a voice that can be heard in all of the world.”
Tumughi spoke of how the US took in Eritrean refugees during the war with Ethiopia and said that he believes that the country could help broker an agreement to find a third country that could absorb some of Israel’s migrant population.
He also spoke of recent violence against African migrants in Israel, and said how the country no longer feels safe, and he and others are no longer confident Israel will listen to their pleas. “Israelis can help us too, but they have shut their eyes and ears to us.”

By Ben Hartman

JPost.com