Skip To Content
JEWISH. INDEPENDENT. NONPROFIT.
Breaking News

Anti-African Riots Draw More Condemnation

A number of additional U.S. Jewish organizations weighed in on Tel Aviv anti-African migrant riots.

Among those condemning the last week’s riots during a protest against the large numbers of Aftican migrants living in the city were the Hebrew Immigrant Aid Society, the New Israel Fund, the American Jewish Committee, J Street and the National Council of Jewish Women.

“Some Israeli politicians and leaders have characterized the migrants in negative terms, referring to them as ‘infiltrators’ and ‘occupiers,’ and the Israeli government itself has at times threatened to start mass deportations,” HIAS said in its statement. “Such harmful characterizations have continued even in the context of the government’s condemnation of the xenophobic riots.”

The new statements follow condemnation of the May 23 riots by the Anti-Defamation League, the Jewish Council for Public Affairs, the Jewish Federations of North America, the Reform movement and Americans for Peace Now.

Violent riots in south Tel Aviv’s Hatikvah neighborhood ended with 17 arrests.

The violence followed a rally against the presence of the migrants, addressed by several Members of Knesset who have championed deportation, among them, members of the ruling Likud Party.

Africans who passed by the rally were attacked. Rioters smashed the windshield of a car carrying three migrants as well as other car windows.

The rioters also set trash bins on fire, threw firecrackers at police and broke into and looted shops associated with the African migrant community.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has condemned the riots.

One American Jewish group, the Zionist Organization of America, did not condemn the riots, focusing instead on praising Netanyahu’s efforts to slow the crossing of illegal immigrants.

“The Israeli Government has shown that it understands that it must maintain the peace, prevent violence and provide all necessary security for its citizens and refugees,” the ZOA said in a statement.

An Israel-based group that monitors U.S. and other human rights groups in Israel, NGO Monitor, also stopped short of specifically condemning the riots, saying instead it “deplores acts and expressions of violence, incitement, and hatred in all forms.”

A message from our CEO & publisher Rachel Fishman Feddersen

I hope you appreciated this article. Before you move on, I wanted to ask you to support the Forward’s award-winning journalism during our High Holiday Monthly Donor Drive.

If you’ve turned to the Forward in the past 12 months to better understand the world around you, we hope you will support us with a gift now. Your support has a direct impact, giving us the resources we need to report from Israel and around the U.S., across college campuses, and wherever there is news of importance to American Jews.

Make a monthly or one-time gift and support Jewish journalism throughout 5785. The first six months of your monthly gift will be matched for twice the investment in independent Jewish journalism. 

—  Rachel Fishman Feddersen, Publisher and CEO

Join our mission to tell the Jewish story fully and fairly.

Republish This Story

Please read before republishing

We’re happy to make this story available to republish for free, unless it originated with JTA, Haaretz or another publication (as indicated on the article) and as long as you follow our guidelines. You must credit the Forward, retain our pixel and preserve our canonical link in Google search.  See our full guidelines for more information, and this guide for detail about canonical URLs.

To republish, copy the HTML by clicking on the yellow button to the right; it includes our tracking pixel, all paragraph styles and hyperlinks, the author byline and credit to the Forward. It does not include images; to avoid copyright violations, you must add them manually, following our guidelines. Please email us at [email protected], subject line “republish,” with any questions or to let us know what stories you’re picking up.

We don't support Internet Explorer

Please use Chrome, Safari, Firefox, or Edge to view this site.