Source: Ha’aretz
Protesters call on law enforcement to cancel the embassy event and warned earlier that the situation could devolve into a violent confrontation; Israeli police use stun grenades and batons on demonstrators
Police clash with asylum seekers at a protest near the Eritrean embassy in Tel Aviv on Saturday.
Credit: Moti MilrodBar Peleg
Sep 2, 2023 10:09 am IDT
Clashes erupted between Israeli police and hundreds of asylum seekers in Israel who were staging an anti-regime protest at the Eritrean embassy on Saturday.
Four police officers were reportedly wounded in the exchange, and one was taken to Ichilov Hospital in Tel Aviv.
Protesters had marched toward Yad Harutsim Street in Tel Aviv on Saturday morning, where an embassy event is slated to take place in the afternoon. The demonstrators were stopped there by Israeli police officers, but later broke through barriers which had been set up by law enforcement.
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The police responded by using stun and gas grenades, as well as batons, on the protesters, and fired shots into the air. Demonstrators smashed the windows of nearby businesses and fought with the officers.
Protesters had called on Israeli law enforcement earlier to cancel the embassy event, warning that the situation could devolve into a violent confrontation.
The police had deployed their forces in the area earlier out of concern that clashes might erupt between supporters and opponents of the Eritrean regime, but later admitted that they were caught off guard by the scale of the brawl. A senior police source told Haaretz “We were very surprised by the level of violence, scenes you only see in the West Bank.”
Instances of violence between supporters and opponents of the Eritrean government have occurred in Israel in the past – in 2020, a supporter of the regime was stabbed to death.
Similar events held at Eritrean embassies in other parts of the world have led to clashes elsewhere in recent weeks, and have contributed to rising tensions in Israel’s Eritrean communities as well.
Human rights organizations estimate that a small percentage of the Eritrean asylum seekers are supporters of Afwerki’s regime. In 2018, Yossi Edelstein, head of the Population Authority’s enforcement and foreigners administration, said that the agency does not examine whether Eritrean asylum seekers in Israel are supporters or opponents of the regime in their native country.
Clashes between the opposing factions have occurred in the past around Eritrean Independence Day, celebrated in May, though this year the event passed in relative silence.
In 2019, 20 asylum seekers were arrested in Tel Aviv, but since the murder that happened the following year, the mass brawls have stopped. Mola Zawada, an anti-regime asylum seeker, warned that “what happens on Shabbat will be more severe than before – if it starts now, it will not stop for a month.
Zawada continued: “People will not be able to control themselves, and Israelis could also be harmed by it when they pass through these neighborhoods.”
Martin Plaut 