ISRAEL AT WAR - DAY 424
The Times of Israel liveblogged Saturday’s events as they unfolded.
Doctors removed part of a camping stove from a police officer’s head, apparently thrown at him during clashes with Eritrean asylum seekers in Tel Aviv, Channel 12 reports.
The officer is hospitalized at Sheba Medical Center in Tel Aviv in a serious condition.
He is among 50 officers who were injured during the violent clashes between supporters and opponents of Eritrea’s government.
“If we weren’t there today and we wouldn’t have intervened between the two groups of demonstrators — the supporters and opponents of the regime — we would be counting bodies,” a senior police official tells Channel 12.
“We protected ourselves and tried to separate and calm the field. There were police officers here who feared a danger to their lives and were forced to use live fire. They fired stun grenades in order to disperse the event,” he says.
שוטר מאושפז במצב קשה לאחר שנפצע במהומות בת"א – חלק מגזייה הוצא מראשו
https://t.co/Sjs7IBO8On@BranuTegene | @OrRavid pic.twitter.com/SibjGRCngQ— החדשות – N12 (@N12News) September 2, 2023
Justice Minister Yariv Levin says that asylum seeker riots in Tel Aviv today prove why the coalition’s judicial overhaul legislation is needed.
“We are fighting for the country to be Jewish and democratic, for the right of the residents of south Tel Aviv and Eilat to live safe lives, so that south Tel Aviv will not turn into the Wild West,” he says in a statement.
Levin points to instances in 2013, 2014, and 2015 when the High Court of Justice struck down government legislation, barring authorities from jailing asylum seekers for extended periods without trial.
He also rails against a 2020 ruling against a law requiring employers to deposit 20 percent of asylum seekers’ salaries into a special fund that they can only access if they leave the country.
“The High Court caused difficulties in several other issues and created new grounds for disqualification out of nowhere. The government acted, the Knesset enacted, and the High Court canceled. Authority without responsibility,” Levin says.
“Therefore, it is important to promise that lawmakers can make decisions and carry them out. Therefore, the system for choosing judges is very important. Therefore, it should be promised that judges who grew up in neighborhoods of the periphery will be chosen for the court. Judges who put the interests of the residents of the neighborhoods before those who cross the border illegally,” he adds.
Israel Police chief Kobi Shabtai gives his full support to officers who clashed with feuding Eritrean asylum seekers in Tel Aviv.
Shabtai says that defense lawyers will be provided to all personnel who face investigators, at a meeting on the ongoing internal probe this evening.
Earlier, the police chief backed Tel Aviv District chief Peretz Amar, over accusations he mishandled the riots.
Tel Aviv Mayor Ron Huldai announces the opening of a hotline to social workers for the city’s residents after violent clashes between Eritrean asylum seekers.
Huldai invites those affected by the violence to phone 0529101883.
CAIRO — Libya’s chief prosecutor says he would establish a fact-finding mission to investigate a meeting last month between the foreign minister of one of the country’s rival governments and Israel’s chief diplomat.
The August 22 meeting caused an uproar across the North African nation. Najla Mangoush, the foreign minister of the Tripoli-based government, and Foreign Minister Eli Cohen met in Rome for the first-ever between top diplomats of Libya and Israel.
Libya criminalizes establishing ties with Israel under a 1957 law. The oil-rich country has long been hostile toward Israel and supportive of the Palestinians.
In a terse statement, General Prosecutor Al-Sediq al-Sour says the fact-finding mission would probe violations of Libya’s rules of boycotting Israel and “investigate the extent of damage to Libya’s interests” because of the Mangoush-Cohen meeting.
Libya slid into chaos after a NATO-backed uprising toppled longtime dictator Muammar Gaddafi in 2011. For years, the country has split between the Western-backed government in Tripoli and a rival administration in the country’s east. Each side has been backed by armed groups and foreign governments.
The US Special Envoy for Holocaust Issues at the Department of State appears to back Yad Vashem chair Dani Dayan amid efforts by Education Minister Yoav Kisch to replace him.
“The US values the crucial work of Yad Vashem and its director’s leadership as we work together on Holocaust education, remembrance, and research. Maintaining the independence of such institutions around the world is key as we face efforts to distort/deny the facts of the Holocaust,” Ellen Germain tweets.
According to Channel 12 news, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Kisch hope to replace Dayan with Keren Barak, a former MK for their Likud party, claiming there are irregularities in the way Yad Vashem is run.
Dayan has strenuously denied the accusations.
The U.S. values the crucial work of @YadVashem & its director’s leadership as we work together on Holocaust education, remembrance, & research. Maintaining the independence of such institutions around the world is key as we face efforts to distort/deny the facts of the Holocaust.
— Ellen Germain (@StateSEHI) September 2, 2023
Some 108,000 people are protesting at the main anti-judicial overhaul rally in Tel Aviv, according to Channel 13 news, which cited data from the CrowdSolutions firm.
In her address to demonstrators, protest leader Shikma Bressler says police “again pay the heavy price for the neglect of the Netanyahu government,” in reference to violent clashes between rival Eritrean asylum seeker groups in Tel Aviv earlier in the day.
“Someone is responsible for the chaos in Tel Aviv today. In 2018, there was an agreement that would have returned most of the Eritreans, and Netanyahu withdrew from the deal because of Kahanist racism,” she says.
“For the umpteenth time, decision-makers did not act in the best interest of the country,” she adds.
Avi Nissenkorn, a former justice minister, tells anti-judicial overhaul protesters in Tel Aviv “our democracy is in danger.”
“It stands on the precipice of dictatorship. The safety and security net of democracy is you, the protest,” he says.
“The existential danger to democracy exists. The forces in the government that push for a messianic dictatorship work continuously, with zeal, through legislative initiatives and budget decisions to create a toxic public atmosphere and set the arena on fire to strengthen its dark ideology,” he says.
“The harm to the system of seniority in appointing the president of the Supreme Court fits into the goal of political control of the vote,” he says, commenting on a drama this week when Supreme Court Justice Yosef Elron submitted his candidacy to take over the role from retiring court chief Esther Hayut.
Nissenkorn warns Elron’s move challenges the independence of the court.
By submitting his candidacy, Elron was seen as already altering the existing system, and if selected, the conservative judge would be a possible ally to Justice Minister Yariv Levin — the architect of the judicial overhaul — on the Judicial Selection Committee. In the committee’s current composition, Elron is seen to have little to no chance of being chosen as president, but his candidacy is likely to be cited by overhaul advocates as ostensible evidence of the need to remake the judicial selection process.
The Prime Minister’s Office says in a statement a team of ministers will convene Sunday to investigate steps to deal with asylum seekers who acted illegally during clashes in Tel Aviv.
Deportation will be considered among other moves against those involved, the PMO says.
Police close bars frequented by asylum seekers in south Tel Aviv, over fear of a resumption of clashes between those supporting and opposing Eritrea’s government, police say.
National Unity chair Benny Gantz calls violent clashes in Tel Aviv between asylum seekers supporting and opposing the Eritrean government an illegitimate demonstration.
“What happened today on the streets of Tel Aviv was not a legitimate protest, but serious violence,” Gantz tweets.
“The perpetrators must be brought to justice, order must be restored, and lessons must be learned from the incident and overall damage to governance under the current government. All this, in addition to the need to formulate a policy that will deal with the problem of asylum seekers in the long term,” he adds.
The government will work to deport Eritrean protesters who attacked police during violent clashes in Tel Aviv, Channel 12 news reports this evening.
Also, the network reports that according to an initial police probe, live fire was used against protesters at one location only because police feared for their lives.
It was the first time live fire was used in Israel against protesters since mass unrest in the Arab community in October 2000.
Protesters against the coalition’s judicial overhaul legislation are lighting flares and blocking the Karkur Junction in northern Israel, the Walla news site reports.
In Haifa, thousands are marching in the streets to the main rally at Horev Junction, according to the Ynet news site.
צומת כרכור מעוז הדמוקרטיה – התחלנו.
כולנו נגד ממשלה, ממשלה של עבריינים תומכי טרור שהורסת לנו את המדינה. pic.twitter.com/T1tdQzK1iv— אבשלום זהר סל اڤشَلوم زوهَر سال (@avshazs) September 2, 2023
The Police Internal Investigations Department opens a probe into the use of live fire by officers during clashes in Tel Aviv today between rival Eritrean asylum seeker groups supporting and opposing the regime in Asmara.
Investigators are gathering evidence from the scene to determine if officers behaved according to the law.
According to media reports, it was the first use of live fire on protesters inside Israel since October 2000, during mass unrest in the Arab community.
TEHRAN, Iran — Naval forces of Iran’s Revolutionary Guards seize a ship “carrying smuggled fuel” in the Gulf and arrest four crew members, local media reports Saturday.
“More than 50,000 liters (13,000 gallons) of smuggled fuel were discovered” on board the ship, Fars news agency quotes the chief justice of the coastal Hormozgan province, Mojtaba Ghahramani, as saying.
He says the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps navy had “confiscated” the ship and “arrested four people” during the operation.
Neither the origin of the ship nor the date of the operation are immediately disclosed.
Ghahramani says the fuel would be redirected to the country’s “legal distribution network.”
The United States military has in recent weeks beefed up its presence in the Gulf after accusing Iran of seizing or attempting to take ships in the vital waterway.
On July 6, the US Navy said the Guards seized a commercial vessel in the Gulf, a day after it accused Iranian forces of two similar attempts off the coast of Oman.
Iran later said the vessel seized in the Gulf was carrying “more than one million liters (220,000 gallons) of smuggled fuel.”
Protesters against the coalition’s judicial overhaul legislation are gathering nationwide for the 35th week in a row.
Demonstrators have begun marching in Haifa and Nahalal in northern Israel, and Ramat HaSharon in the center.
Activists vowed the rallies would go ahead after police tackled violent clashes in Tel Aviv between Eritrean asylum seekers supporting and opposing the government in Asmara.
The leader of Hamas’s political bureau, Ismail Haniyeh, blames “the Zionist occupation” for the ongoing violent crime wave in Israel’s Arab community, in his first public comment on the matter.
“We hold the Zionist occupation responsible for the blood and the murders running wild inside the lands of 1948,” his office says in a statement.
“The security arms of the Zionist enemy play a dangerous role that aims to engage our people in another struggle to forget their religious and historical ties to the Palestinian people in Gaza, the West Bank, and in exile,” the statement reads.
According to the Abraham Initiatives, an anti-violence advocacy group, 166 Arabs have been killed in homicides this year, an all-time high and more than double the figure at the same last year. Most of the victims were killed in shootings.
Most of the killings are part of a violent crime wave that has engulfed the Arab community in recent years. Authorities have blamed burgeoning organized crime and the proliferation of weaponry, while some have pointed to a failure by communities to cooperate with law enforcement to root out criminals.
Most of the killings are part of a violent crime wave that has engulfed the Arab community in recent years. Authorities have blamed burgeoning organized crime and the proliferation of weaponry, while some have pointed to a failure by communities to cooperate with law enforcement to root out criminals.
Magen David Adom is holding a special blood drive in Tel Aviv this evening in response to a severe shortage of blood of all types and the difficulty in supplying sufficient blood to hospitals to treat the ill and injured.
Only today, MDA supplied 218 units of blood and blood components to hospitals as they dealt with the violent conflict between groups from within the Eritrean asylum seeker community that resulted in some 160 injured, including 15 in severe condition.
The public is asked to donate blood this evening between 5:30 and 10:30 p.m. in the lobby of Wolfson Medical Center in Holon or the ambulatory emergency department at Ichilov Hospital in Tel Aviv.
A single unit of blood can save the lives of three people who need a blood transfusion.
Those who cannot make it to the special blood drive locations this evening can donate blood at another time. Information can be found on the MDA website.
Coalition members blame clashes in Tel Aviv on the High Court of Justice for allowing Eritrean asylum seekers to reside in the southern neighborhoods in the city, while opposition parties blame the government for the violence.
“High Court judges are endangering the existence of the State of Israel as the national home of the Jewish people,” Likud MK Boaz Bismuth writes on X, formerly known as Twitter. “The striking down of Knesset laws designed to keep infiltrators out of the country was done against the law and with the extreme short-sightedness of the judges.”
“Today we had another taste of how it blows up in our faces,” he adds.
Likud MK Tally Gotliv writes: “Those of the High Court justices who allowed Eritreans to live in Tel Aviv thought today that they were wrong, that they allowed Eritreans to take over south Tel Aviv and threaten residents was a fatal mistake.”
She expressed backing for police officers, adding: “I wouldn’t be surprised if it didn’t bother any judge in their areas where there aren’t any Eritreans.”
The lawmakers were apparently referencing a number of decisions, most notably a High Court ruling in 2014 that struck down the “Infiltrators law,” declaring that the then-practice of holding African migrants in facilities in southern Israel for up to a year was illegal, and ordered the state to shutter the contested Holot detention center within 90 days.
Opposition leader Yair Lapid, leader of Yesh Atid, calls out the government for failing to live up to its promise to take care of Israel’s migrant issue.
“As usual, with them, the situation only gets worse and the chaos runs wild,” he tweets. “We took care of it quietly, without big declarations, conscious of the complexity of the issue.”
Opposition MK Naama Lazimi, from the Labor party, slams the authorities for not heeding the warnings of Eritrean community members in the lead up to the violence.
“The policy of turning a blind eye has brought us to this point. It is time for us to open them and demand that all those spreading slogans and explosive words start working for the public or resign.”
Yesh Atid MK Vladimir Beliak says the policies of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on asylum seekers have failed for 15 years.
“Netanyahu appointed as police minister a criminal and TikTok clown [Itamar] Ben Gvir, who has dismembered the top of the police, including in the Tel Aviv district. There is a clear address to the failure of the treatment of infiltrators in south Tel Aviv and the anarchy raging in the region — the Netanyahu-Ben Gvir government,” Beliak writes.
Meir Medical Center in Kfar Sava reports that it has treated 10 of the injured from today’s violent events in south Tel Aviv.
Two were policewomen, who were lightly injured, treated, and sent home. Of the others, seven have light injuries mainly caused by being hit by objects.
One person has a bullet in his leg and is being treated in the orthopedic emergency department.
Protest organizers say demonstrations against the coalition’s judicial overhaul moves will be held as planned after clashes in Tel Aviv between Eritrean asylum seekers.
Activists say protest groups are coordinating with police after the violence, which authorities said was under control by late afternoon.
“Our democracy is under dangerous attack from a government that is destroying our home. The statements from the coalition against the IDF, Shin Bet, Mossad, and security agencies in recent weeks demonstrate how enormous the danger is to the State of Israel,” protesters say.
Protesters are set to demonstrate Saturday evening in Tel Aviv and across Israel for a 35th consecutive week, under the banner of “no dictatorship in our schools.”
Saturday’s rallies are to be held the day after the academic year began, and as Education Minister Yoav Kisch seeks to oust Yad Vashem Holocaust Museum director Dani Dayan, and replace him with an ally from his Likud party.
In an earlier statement, protest leaders referred to the High Court of Justice hearings in the coming weeks on petitions against amendments to two Basic Laws passed by the coalition and another motion aimed at forcing Justice Minister Yariv Levin to convene the Judicial Selection Committee.
Liran, an owner of a business near today’s clashes in Tel Aviv, tells the Ynet news site that the scene was “a warzone” when he arrived.
“Our businesses, which we pay for with a lot of money, blood, and sweat, fight every day and look what happens. There is no governance. We need to leave everything and come here on Shabbat because of the riots,” he fumes.
“We have been warning for two years south Tel Aviv is under attack. From drug addicts to break-ins, thefts,” he states, adding that he has informed police of such incidents but nothing has changed.
“We have no security here today. I feel that I am in South America — scared and looking behind me. Today was like this, the same thing. It can’t be that we served in the army, we studied, serve the country, love the country, pay taxes and in the end we get our businesses ruined; it’s simply a waste,” he says.
At 4:15 p.m. Ichilov Hospital announces the end of the emergency event. Dr. Esti Saiag summed up the event by saying that the medical center in central Tel Aviv received a total of 43 injured, 14 of them in serious condition.
Five of those patients are sedated and intubated. The most seriously injured underwent surgery and are now being cared for in the intensive care unit.
Most of the injured are in light to moderate condition.
“At this moment there is no danger of loss of life, but it is too early to know this with certainty,” Saiag said.
Police say 39 suspects were arrested during clashes between supporters and opponents of the Eritrean Government in Tel Aviv, as quiet is restored to the streets.
Authorities say they are maintaining a significant presence on the street and continuing to conduct arrests.
Police say they were “surprised” by the intensity of the clashes in Tel Aviv between supporters and opponents of the Eritrean government.
Haim Bublil, Yarkon District Police chief, says the authorities coordinated with both sides in the lead-up to the event, but they did not follow the requirements set by police.
“Opponents of the regime broke through the barriers, fought with police, threw rocks and fences. We used dispersion methods. We were surprised by the intensity of the violence,” he says.
Representatives of the Eritrean community in Israel say they warned police a week ago over threats of violence surrounding the event hosted by the Eritrean embassy.
Ichilov Hospital CEO Prof. Ronni Gamzu reports that it is dealing with a mass casualty incident on a scale that has not been seen in decades.
According to Gamzu, 40 injured people arrived at Ichilov, with 10 of them in serious condition. Among the injuries were gunshot, stabbing, and head wounds.
Hundreds of doctors and nurses were called in to treat the incoming patients. Some patients underwent brain surgery and at this time all patients are hospitalized either in intensive care, surgical, or regular wards.
There are some 140 injured in total, 15 of them in serious condition. Thirty of the injured are police officers, none of whom are in serious medical condition. In addition to Ichilov, the injured have been taken to Sheba Medical Center, Wolfson Medical Center, Shamir-Assaf Harofeh Medical Center, and Beilinson Medical Center.
Gamzu says that the event began highly unusually as the injured began arriving on their own at the hospital rather than through Magen David Adom or other rescue services. Without the initial usual communication with rescue services, it took some time for the hospital staff to understand what was going on. It quickly declared a mass casualty event, cleared six operating rooms, and called in extra staff.
“An additional complication to the situation is that we need to not only provide regular social support to the patients and their families, but we also need to keep the conflict out of the hospital. People from both sides of this are arriving here and we need to keep them separate,” he says.
MDA reports it has dealt with 114 of the total injured.
Eight individuals treated by the ambulance are in serious condition, 13 suffer moderate injuries, and 93 have mild injuries.
Among the injured are 30 police officers. Predominantly, these injuries comprise bruises, many resulting from stones and discarded objects.
A spokesman for Israel Police says the situation in south Tel Aviv is now “under control.”
Channel 12 news reports that police are using buses to return Eritrean nationals involved in the clashes to the different neighborhoods in which they reside across the city, as well as to other cities.
At least 114 people have been injured in the violence in Tel Aviv between Eritrean asylum seekers and police, Magen David Adom says.
Eight of the injured are in serious condition, 13 are moderately wounded and 93 lightly hurt.
Thirty of the wounded are police officers.
At least 11 of the wounded were injured by gunfire, according to Ichilov Hosptial.
Police said three of the gunfire wounds were caused by law enforcement officers opening fire when they felt their lives were in danger.
Asylum seekers from Eritrea protesting against the Asmara government clashed with regime supporters and police in the coastal city after a demonstration turned violent.
Videos posted to social media showed rioters committing acts of violence and vandalism.
תיעוד: מתפרעים מנצפים חלונות בבתי עסק במחאה האלימה הבוקר בדרום תל אביב@hadasgrinberg pic.twitter.com/3bMiZ0wjdH
— כאן חדשות (@kann_news) September 2, 2023
Eritreans make up the majority of the more than 30,000 African asylum-seekers in Israel.
They say they fled danger and persecution from a country known as the “North Korea of Africa” with forced lifetime military conscription in slavery-like conditions.
President Isaias Afwerki, 77, has led Eritrea since 1993, taking power after the country won independence from Ethiopia in a long guerrilla war. There have been no elections, there’s no free media and exit visas are required. Many young people are forced into military service with no end date, human rights groups and United Nations experts say.
The nation on the Horn of Africa has one of the world’s worst human rights records, and the asylum-seekers fear death if they were to return.
Although migrants who are supporters of the Eritrean regime, and therefore not under threat of persecution, in theory do not quality for refugee status under UN guidelines, Israeli authorities do not distinguish between asylum seekers based on their political affiliations.
In Israel, they face an uncertain future as the state makes attempts to make life difficult and deport them. Many members of the hardline government and its supporters refer to them as “infiltrators” who are in Israel as economic migrants.
But despite the struggle to stay, in often squalid conditions, some say they enjoy some freedoms they never would have at home — like the right to protest.
Saturday’s violence is not isolated — last month, as Eritrea marked 30 years of independence, festivals held by Eritrea’s government and diaspora in Europe and North America were attacked by exiles. The Eritrean government dismissed them as “asylum scum.”
At least 75 people have now been injured in spiraling violence in south Tel Aviv between supporters and opponents of the Eritrean government, as well as clashes with police, the Magen David Adom emergency service says.
Twenty five of those injured were police officers.
The number is expected to rise with clashes continuing at a number of locations.
The Prime Minister’s Office says in a statement that the premier has received updates on the situation in Tel Aviv from Internal Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir and Israel Police chief Kobi Shabtai.
“The prime minister instructed them to act to restore public order,” the statement reads.
Asylum seekers from Eritrea protesting against the Asmara government are clashing with police and regime supporters in Tel Aviv after a demonstration turned violent.
המשטרה משתמשת בכמות רבה של רימוני הלם, גז ושימוש נרחב באלות. באוויר גם ריח של בואש. הם מנסים לדחוק את המפגינים שחלק מהם הגיעו מחוץ לתל אביב, מחוץ לשכונה pic.twitter.com/awknr2Gycs
— Bar Peleg (@bar_peleg) September 2, 2023
Tel Aviv’s Ichilov Hospital says it is treating 38 injured amid intra-community violence between opponents and supporters of the Eritrean government, as well as with police.
The wounded include 12 people with serious head injuries amid clashes in the south of the city. Earlier the hospital said it was treating 11 people for gunshot wounds.
A number of the injured have additionally been taken to the Wolfson Medical Center in Holon.
The violence began hours earlier when opponents of the regime protested outside the venue where the Eritrean embassy was set to hold an event.
Police said demonstrators broke through barriers and began to riot. In a statement, Israel Police said officers fired when they felt their lives were in danger.
There are violent clashes between supporters and opponents of the Eritrean government at a number of locations in south Tel Aviv, Hebrew-language media reports.
Hundreds of police officers have been deployed to the city to reinforce the cops already on the streets.
According to reports, police are using smoke and stun grenades as they attempt to separate and disperse the clashing groups.
The violence initially broke out between police and Asmara regime opponents near a venue that was set to host an event organized by the Eritrean embassy.
A community organizer told the Haaretz newspaper that activists had warned police that the situation could turn violent, but their pleas were ignored.
זירת קרב בדרום תל אביב. העימותים התחדשו עם זריקת מקלות, בקבוקים ואבנים, בין הצדדים ועל רכבים שנקלעו למקום
תיעוד: יותם רונן pic.twitter.com/4drKQjmkOZ
— אורי סלע Uri Sela (@uri_sela) September 2, 2023
