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href="https://electronicintifada.net/content/netanyahu-openly-boasts-israels-war-africans/19051">https://electronicintifada.net/content/netanyahu-openly-boasts-israels-war-africans/19051</a></font>
<h1 id="reader-title">Netanyahu openly boasts of Israel's war on
Africans</h1>
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<p class="node__submitted">
<span class="field field-author"><a
href="https://electronicintifada.net/people/david-sheen"
typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label
skos:prefLabel" datatype="">David Sheen</a></span> <span
class="field field-publisher"></span><span class="field
field-publication-date"><span class="date-display-single"
property="dc:date" datatype="xsd:dateTime"
content="2017-01-03T19:44:00+00:00">3 January 2017</span></span>
</p>
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style="display: block;">
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xml:base="https://electronicintifada.net/content/netanyahu-openly-boasts-israels-war-africans/19051">
<article class="node-19051 node node-story view-mode-full
node-is-page image-landscape">
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<p><a
href="https://electronicintifada.net/tags/donald-trump">Donald
Trump’s</a> election as US president has given
closeted racists the license they have long sought to
openly advocate against Muslims, refugees and people of
color.</p>
<p>As progressive Americans strategize on how to defend
victims of bigotry, they would be wise to take stock of
how Israeli Prime Minister <a
href="https://electronicintifada.net/tags/benjamin-netanyahu">Benjamin
Netanyahu</a> is already carrying out <a
href="https://electronicintifada.net/tags/ethnic-cleansing">ethnic
cleansing</a> similar to that which Trump has promised
to implement.</p>
<p>Two incidents bookending the year capture the zeitgeist
of Israel’s war on African refugees in 2016. In January,
an African refugee family, whose 1-year-old baby, Kako,
had been stabbed in the head, <a
href="http://europe.newsweek.com/israel-family-stabbed-eritrean-baby-receives-europe-asylum-417337">departed
Israel</a> after the Netanyahu government refused to
help them defer the child’s medical bills.</p>
<p>And in December, the Israeli police station responsible
for south <a
href="https://electronicintifada.net/tags/tel-aviv">Tel
Aviv</a> <a
href="https://www.facebook.com/may.golan.7/posts/10154875287483118">honored</a>
<a href="https://electronicintifada.net/tags/may-golan">May
Golan</a>, a leader of <a
href="https://electronicintifada.net/blogs/ali-abunimah/may-you-be-raped-your-grave-says-new-darling-israels-ruling-likud-party">anti-African
incitement campaigns</a> that, for all intents and
purposes, encourage attacks such as the one on baby
Kako.</p>
<p>For the past five years, I have been compiling annual
lists of the <a
href="https://electronicintifada.net/tags/israels-racist-ringleaders">ringleaders
in Israel’s war on Africans</a>. My list for 2016
incorporates almost every branch of the Israeli state.</p>
<h2>10. Moshe Kaspi, university dean</h2>
<p>In February, the dean of an Israeli university gave his
students an exam that contained a question which
implicitly <a
href="http://mondoweiss.net/2016/02/african-refugees-are-likened-to-rats-in-israeli-exam-question-and-its-supposed-to-be-funny/">compared</a>
African refugees to rats.</p>
<p>In the test authored and administered by Moshe Kaspi, a
dean at <a
href="https://electronicintifada.net/tags/ben-gurion-university">Ben-Gurion
University of the Negev</a>, engineering students were
asked to calculate the cost of removing rodents from the
Tel Aviv area, transferring them to a holding center in
the south of the country, and then shipping them to
Africa, where they would be experimented on.</p>
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<p>While the exercise did not explicitly mention African
refugees, the analogy would have been obvious to many
students, since the scenario it posits closely parallels
political developments in Israel. For the last three
years, the Israeli government has been rounding up
African refugees in the Tel Aviv area and transferring
them to a detention center in the south of the country.
Following their detention, many of the refugees have
been expelled to Africa, just like the rats in Kaspi’s
test.</p>
<p>After one woman accused him of racism, Kaspi apologized
for the question, claiming that he had intended “to
insert an aspect of humor into the exam.”</p>
<p>The incident did not seem to significantly tarnish the
reputation of Ben-Gurion University. A few months months
later, the college received a <a
href="http://www.haaretz.com/israel-news/1.726980">$400
million gift</a>, the largest college endowment in
Israel’s history.</p>
<h2>9. Israel Ziv, security consultant</h2>
<p>Israel Ziv’s prior <a
href="https://www.linkedin.com/in/zivisrael">career</a>
as an officer in the Israeli military ended just before
African refugees began arriving to the country in large
numbers a decade ago. But since that time, Ziv has
parlayed his army career into a successful business in
the private sector with the security consulting firm
Global CST.</p>
<p>In that capacity, Ziv has provided services to Salva
Kiir Mayardit, president of <a
href="https://electronicintifada.net/tags/south-sudan">South
Sudan</a>. Kiir is responsible for horrific crimes
against his own citizens.</p>
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<p>Earlier this month, an Israel Channel 2 video report
revealed that Ziv had <a
href="http://www.mako.co.il/news-israel/local-q4_2016/Article-707fc943d1ed851004.htm">advised</a>
Kiir in an effort to rehabilitate his international
reputation. Kiir has come into disrepute for allowing
his soldiers to <a
href="http://www.huffingtonpost.co.uk/entry/south-sudan-army-rape-civilian-women_uk_56e3131de4b03fb88eddbb6d">rape</a>
women and young girls, in lieu of salary payment, and to
<a
href="http://www.timesofisrael.com/children-raped-castrated-thrown-into-fires-in-south-sudan-un/">castrate
and kill young boys</a>.</p>
<p>Israel is a significant <a
href="https://electronicintifada.net/content/israeli-arms-fuel-atrocities-africa/14844">supplier</a>
of weapons to South Sudan.</p>
<p>According to the Channel 2 report, Ziv hired <a
href="https://electronicintifada.net/tags/ron-prosor">Ron
Prosor</a>, a former Israeli ambassador to the United
Nations, as part of his work. One idea considered was
that Kiir would make a speech at the UN, flanked by a
woman who had been raped by soldiers from South Sudan.</p>
<p>Is it inherently racist of Ziv to want to profit from
whitewashing a criminal despot like Kiir? Or did Ziv
only take advantage of a global white supremacist system
where Black lives matter so little that their mass rapes
and castrations can be covered up, guilt free?</p>
<p>Either way, Ziv’s conduct was deplorable.</p>
<h2>8. Eliyahu Asulin, rabbi</h2>
<p>Hatred for African refugees extends even to their
children.</p>
<p>In May, the spouses of foreign ambassadors serving in
Israel volunteered to help clean up the outdoor play
area of a Tel Aviv nursery for African children. Their
aid had become necessary because Israelis had <a
href="http://www.jpost.com/Israel-News/Politics-And-Diplomacy/Diplomatic-spouses-rally-to-help-migrant-children-in-south-Tel-Aviv-455597">defiled</a>
the playground with dead animals, garbage and feces.</p>
<p>Refugee children playing in public parks are regularly
harassed. In addition to cursing the kids, their
harassers make a show of <a
href="https://twitter.com/davidsheen/status/718457260968697856/photo/1">distributing
condoms</a> to African refugees, apparently thinking
this is a clever way of saying Africans should not bear
children, as long as they live in Israel.</p>
<p>But while ordinary Israeli citizens are trying to shame
Africans into foregoing their reproductive rights,
leading religious figures have been actually harming the
reproductive organs of newborn babies.</p>
<p>In November, it emerged that Israeli circumcisers allow
trainees without the necessary experience to practice
their cutting techniques on the genitals of black and
brown babies.</p>
<p>An exposé by Israel’s new public broadcaster Kan
revealed that – for an $11,000 fee – Eliyahu Asulin, a
popular rabbi, would <a
href="http://www.haaretz.com/israel-news/1.756059">allow</a>
novices who had not completed their professionally
mandated studies to perform circumcisions in his stead
on infants from African and Asian families.</p>
<p>Unaware that an undercover journalist was <a
href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QZ5znQNcIog">filming</a>
him, Asulin urged his new “apprentice” to carry out a
circumcision ritual on the son of a Filipino woman. The
baby’s mother had been misled as she had only consented
to a circumcision undertaken by a professional.</p>
<p>In the video, Asulin describes African babies as
“cannon fodder.” He says: “Even if your cut isn’t
straight, they won’t say anything, because they don’t
understand anything.”</p>
<p>After Asulin’s misconduct was publicly exposed,
Israel’s chief rabbinate punished him lightly. Asulin
was forbidden from training others for three years, but
was still <a
href="https://twitter.com/uriyaelk/status/808382336287047680">permitted</a>
to practice circumcision himself.</p>
<h2>7. The Petah Tikva killers</h2>
<p>In November, 38-year-old Sudanese asylum-seeker Babikir
Adham-Uvdo was <a
href="https://972mag.com/israeli-teens-charged-for-brutally-beating-asylum-seeker-to-death/123494/">beaten
to death</a> by two Israeli youths outside of the city
hall in <a
href="https://electronicintifada.net/tags/petah-tikva">Petah
Tikva</a>, a town near Tel Aviv.
Security camera <a
href="http://www.mako.co.il/news-law/crime-q4_2016/Article-8a4fff2faafd851004.htm">footage</a>
of the incident revealed that the youths beat Adham-Uvdo
for more than an hour. He was brought to hospital but
never recovered, and was disconnected from life-support
systems days later.</p>
<p>Although the killing bore similarities to other attacks
on Africans, an <a
href="http://www.haaretz.com/israel-news/.premium-1.754734">article</a>
in the Israeli newspaper <em>Haaretz</em> stated that
“people close” to a suspect in the killing believed it
was not a racist incident. Relying on those sources, <em>Haaretz</em>
suggested that Adham-Uvdo may have been killed because
he “made insulting comments to girls.”</p>
<p>Adham-Uvdo was <a
href="http://www.haaretz.com/israel-news/1.756950">seen</a>
walking and then stopping in front of three 16-year-old
girls. The girls shouted at him to leave, and within
seconds of first encountering them, Adham-Uvdo raised
his hands and walked away.</p>
<p>The 16-year-old boy then attacked Adham-Uvdo from
behind; another youth soon joined in, kicking Adham-Uvdo
as he lay on the ground.</p>
<p>The video footage also shows that paramedics arrived on
the scene midway through the beating. In the video, they
are seen tending to Adham-Uvdo but, after a short while,
leave him to fend for himself, seemingly satisfied that
he no longer requires their aid. Within seconds of their
departure, the two young men return and continue the
beating.</p>
<p>Two persons have been <a
href="http://www.haaretz.com/israel-news/1.756950">charged</a>
in relation to the incident: one is Dennis Barshivatz, a
Petah Tikva local, now aged 20; the other is a
16-year-old, whose name has not been published. An
Israeli prosecutor has decided to charge the two with
manslaughter, rather than murder.</p>
<p>Some observers noted the parallels between the deaths
of Adham-Uvdo and Emmett Till. Till was an
African-American teenager who was <a
href="http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/amex/till/timeline/timeline2.html">murdered</a>
in Mississippi, beaten until he was unrecognizable,
ostensibly for flirting with a white woman.</p>
<p>Till’s killing occurred in 1955, a year after the US
Supreme Court <a
href="http://learning.blogs.nytimes.com/2012/05/17/may-17-1954-supreme-court-declares-school-segregation-unconstitutional-in-brown-v-board-of-education/">declared</a>
segregated schools to be unconstitutional. Yet in
Israel, <a
href="http://www.haaretz.com/opinion/schools-for-jews-and-arabs-separate-but-definitely-not-equal-1.443811">segregation
remains widespread</a>.</p>
<p>Just three months ago, an Israeli court was told that
the Petah Tikvah municipality had <a
href="http://www.haaretz.com/israel-news/.premium-1.741046">hindered</a>
African refugees from registering their children for
pre-schools in town.</p>
<p>Since the killing of Adham-Uvdo, dozens of African
refugees have been <a
href="http://www.mako.co.il/news-channel2/Channel-2-Newscast-q4_2016/Article-e42f6423da14951004.htm">arrested</a>
in Petah Tikva. The local mayor, Yitzhak Braverman, has
approved the arrests.</p>
<h2>6. Tal Schwartz, judge</h2>
<p>Babikir Adham-Uvdo was the latest, but not the first,
African refugee to be lynched in Israel. In October
2015, after a gunman shot and killed an Israeli soldier
and wounded about 10 other bystanders in the central bus
station complex in <a
href="https://electronicintifada.net/tags/bir-al-saba">Bir
al-Saba</a> (Beersheba), a mob of Israelis <a
href="https://electronicintifada.net/blogs/rania-khalek/israeli-mob-attacks-dying-eritrean-refugee-after-soldier-killed">attacked</a>
29-year-old Eritrean refugee Haftom Zarhum.</p>
<p>Those who took part in the killing included Israeli
soldiers, police officers and a prison warden.</p>
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<p>In June this year, an Israeli tribunal <a
href="http://www.haaretz.com/israel-news/1.727579">ruled</a>
that prison warden Hananiya Shabbat would not be charged
for beating Zarhum with a bench.</p>
<p>Rather than reprimanding Shabbat, Tal Schwartz, a judge
in the tribunal, <a
href="http://www.ynet.co.il/articles/0,7340,L-4821468,00.html">complimented</a>
him. Schwartz stated that Shabbat had “acted in a way
that is expected of a prison guard, that which is needed
to contribute to the positive image of the prison
service.”</p>
<h2>5. Zion Amir, lawyer</h2>
<p>Zion Amir is a lawyer who has <a
href="http://www.haaretz.com/print-edition/features/defense-attorney-zion-amir-will-your-client-moshe-katsav-be-found-guilty-of-rape-1.308906">defended</a>
the <a
href="http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/middle-east/israel-president-moshe-katsav-released-jail-rape-five-years-seven-years-parole-a7483041.html">rapist</a>
and former president of Israel Moshe Katsav.</p>
<p>Amir has represented some of the Israelis <a
href="http://www.jpost.com/Arab-Israeli-Conflict/Shin-Bet-Jewish-terror-suspects-being-interrogated-over-Duma-attack-436176">accused</a>
of firebombing a Palestinian family in the occupied West
Bank. <a
href="https://electronicintifada.net/tags/ali-dawabsha">Ali
Dawabsha</a>, an 18-month-old baby, and his parents
were <a
href="https://electronicintifada.net/blogs/charlotte-silver/two-israelis-charged-firebombing-killed-palestinian-family">fatally
injured</a> in that attack.</p>
<p>So it should come as no surprise that Amir is also <a
href="http://news.walla.co.il/item/3004137">defending</a>
some of the Israelis charged with the lynching of
Eritrean refugee Haftom Zarhum.</p>
<p>In March, <a
href="https://electronicintifada.net/tags/aryeh-deri">Aryeh
Deri</a>, Israel’s interior minister, <a
href="http://www.haaretz.com/israel-news/.premium-1.706608">announced</a>
that he would appoint Amir to head the government’s
advisory panel on refugees.</p>
<p>After Amir had been on the job for four months, <em>Haaretz</em>
<a
href="http://www.haaretz.com/israel-news/.premium-1.732150">reported</a>
that not even one asylum request had been approved. In
that time, more than 1,000 asylum requests were
rejected.</p>
<h2>4. Roni Alsheikh, police chief</h2>
<p>In the year he has occupied the post, <a
href="https://electronicintifada.net/tags/roni-alsheikh">Roni
Alsheikh</a>, head of Israel’s police, has advanced
the idea that African refugees are inherently criminal,
giving his officers a green light to attack them.</p>
<p>In August, Alsheikh made his anti-African bias explicit
when he <a
href="http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-4848297,00.html">told</a>
a conference of the Israeli Bar Association: “In all
criminological studies worldwide, it has been proven
that immigrants are more involved in crime than others.”</p>
<p>Alsheikh’s comments drew strong <a
href="http://www.haaretz.com/israel-news/.premium-1.739461">criticism</a>
from Israeli citizens of Ethiopian descent. “With one
sentence, the police chief has summarized and confirmed
all of our complaints [about police racism],”
Ethiopian-Israeli activist Inbar Bugala said, according
to <em>Haaretz</em>.</p>
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<p>Israeli police seem to be especially bothered by
communities of color finding common cause in the
struggle against Israeli racism.</p>
<p>When Haftom Zarhum was killed by a mob of Israelis in
2015, Bugala wrote on Facebook that a racist lynching
had occurred. “Black people have become terrorists –
there was no mistaken identification,” she wrote.</p>
<p>Minutes after posting the message, the Israeli police
contacted Bugala and <a
href="http://www.haaretz.com/israel-news/.premium-1.701662">demanded</a>
that she delete it. The post disappeared from her
Facebook page, and though she re-posted it several
times, it was taken down after each instance.</p>
<h2>3. David Amsalem, lawmaker</h2>
<p>While some Israeli officials discriminate against all
Africans in equal measure, others advocate opposing
policies for Black people, depending on whether the
people in question are Jews. Such is the case with David
Amsalem, a rookie lawmaker from <a
href="https://electronicintifada.net/tags/likud">Likud</a>,
the largest party in Israel’s ruling coalition.</p>
<p>Amsalem labors to bring Black Jews to Israel, while
working simultaneously to expel Africans who are not
Jewish.</p>
<p>In March, when Israeli officials reversed a 2015
decision to facilitate the immigration of 9,000
Falashmura, the extended family members of
Ethiopian-Israelis still living in <a
href="https://electronicintifada.net/tags/ethiopia">Ethiopia</a>,
Amsalem <a
href="http://www.haaretz.com/israel-news/.premium-1.707326">accused</a>
the government of racism. “They don’t want to bring
Black people to the country from a troubled place,” he
said.</p>
<p>In protest, Amsalem refused to vote in favor of
government-sponsored legislation, until the Falashmura
were allowed to immigrate. The government eventually
allowed some Ethiopians to enter Israel. But as
punishment for disobeying party discipline, Amsalem was
temporarily <a
href="http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-4788826,00.html">blocked</a>
from proposing laws or speaking in Israel’s parliament,
the <a
href="https://electronicintifada.net/tags/israeli-knesset">Knesset</a>.</p>
<p>As chair of the Knesset’s interior and environment
committee, however, Amsalem worked to make the already
precarious lives of non-Jewish African refugees much
more difficult. In November, Amsalem secured committee
approval for an amendment to Israel’s Anti-Infiltration
Law which would automatically <a
href="http://www.news1.co.il/Archive/001-D-385005-00.html">deposit</a>
part of the wages paid to African refugee workers in a
fund. The refugees would only be able to access the
money taken from them when they leave Israel for good.</p>
<p>Refugee advocacy groups have <a
href="http://www.haaretz.com/israel-news/.premium-1.741726">warned</a>
Amsalem that the move would further impoverish African
refugees, potentially triggering a humanitarian crisis.
In a complaint, the groups wrote: “Asylum seekers are
liable to find themselves on the streets, children will
go hungry, women may turn to prostitution and more.”</p>
<p>Amsalem casually dismissed these appeals, asserting
that Africans should be able to survive on their reduced
salaries.</p>
<h2>2. Aryeh Deri, interior minister</h2>
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<p>Ever since <a
href="https://electronicintifada.net/tags/benjamin-netanyahu">Benjamin
Netanyahu’s</a> re-election as prime minister in 2009,
the post of interior minister has been filled by a
steady stream of unabashed racists.</p>
<p>Aryeh Deri, the current incumbent, <a
href="http://www.haaretz.com/israel-news/elections/the-return-of-the-king-arye-dery-s-unlikely-redemption.premium-1.476627">returned</a>
to politics in 2012 after a 13-year absence, two of
which were spent in prison for corruption. He has
developed a reputation for defending Israel’s
downtrodden.</p>
<p>Deri’s compassion does not extend to Africans, however.
In his first year on the job as interior minister, a
post he also held before his downfall, Deri has <a
href="http://www.haaretz.com/opinion/1.706977">campaigned</a>
with as much enthusiasm as his predecessors to expel
African refugees.</p>
<p>In March, Deri <a
href="http://www.haaretz.com/israel-news/.premium-1.706608">told</a>
the Knesset’s interior and environment committee that if
Israel’s <a
href="https://electronicintifada.net/tags/israeli-high-court">high
court</a> won’t permit him to deport African refugees
against their will, he would order the construction of
an additional facility to imprison them. Since 2013,
Israel has <a
href="http://www.haaretz.com/israel-news/.premium-1.758400">held</a>
10,000 African refugees in <a
href="https://electronicintifada.net/tags/holot-internment-camp">Holot</a>,
a desert detention center.</p>
<p>In April, Deri’s ministry <a
href="http://www.haaretz.com/israel-news/.premium-1.712823">launched</a>
an advertising campaign warning Israeli citizens not to
hire non-Jewish African refugees, even though a high
court ruling allows them to work in Israel.</p>
<p>A week later, the ministry <a
href="http://www.haaretz.com/israel-news/.premium-1.713748">clarified</a>
that it would not issue temporary residency visas to the
teenage children of African refugees. African teens need
these documents because they can be easily mistaken for
adults and detained by immigration police who patrol
Israel’s cities.</p>
<p>After a migrant rights lawyer appealed against the
policy in court, Deri <a
href="http://www.haaretz.com/israel-news/.premium-1.736753">agreed</a>
in principle to issue visas for African teens. The
lawyer who challenged the policy, Osnat Cohen-Lifshitz,
has predicted that it may take a long time before Deri’s
agreement is implemented.</p>
<p>In September, a Jerusalem tribunal <a
href="http://www.haaretz.com/israel-news/.premium-1.740249">ruled</a>
that fleeing forced service in the Eritrean army can be
grounds for refugee status. Determined to deport all
Eritreans, who constitute a majority of the African
refugees in Israel, Deri <a
href="http://www.haaretz.com/israel-news/.premium-1.740469">protested</a>
that the tribunal’s decision would cause “endless
trouble” and ordered an immediate appeal.</p>
<h2>1. Benjamin Netanyahu, prime minister</h2>
<p>In 2016, Benjamin Netanyahu <a
href="http://www.jpost.com/Israel-News/Politics-And-Diplomacy/Netanyahu-delays-allocating-portfolios-440654">held</a>
five separate cabinet portfolios, as well as the prime
minister’s post. He used the powers at his disposal to
deport thousands of African refugees. Without question,
the worst of these were the powers Netanyahu continues
to wield as Israel’s foreign minister.</p>
<p>When the first wave of refugees from war-torn <a
href="https://electronicintifada.net/tags/darfur">Darfur</a>
started to arrive in Israel 10 years ago, the government
<a
href="https://www.knesset.gov.il/mmm/data/pdf/m01790.pdf">argued</a>
that they couldn’t be trusted to live in the country
because they were from Sudan, a country that <a
href="http://www.haaretz.com/israel-news/.premium-1.642395">does
not have</a> diplomatic relations with Israel.</p>
<p>This argument has never made sense, as Darfuri refugees
first fled to Israel precisely because they and their
families were victims of the Sudanese regime, not
supporters of it.</p>
<p>Paradoxically, in September, it emerged that Israel’s
foreign ministry has been quietly <a
href="http://www.haaretz.com/israel-news/.premium-1.740676">lobbying
the US</a> to forge closer ties with Sudan.</p>
<p>Israel reportedly favored this move because Omar
al-Bashir’s government had distanced itself from <a
href="https://electronicintifada.net/tags/iran">Iran</a>.</p>
<p>Just two weeks after Netanyahu’s shilling for al-Bashir
made news headlines, <a
href="https://electronicintifada.net/tags/amnesty-international">Amnesty
International</a> <a
href="http://www.haaretz.com/world-news/.premium-1.745051">revealed</a>
that the Sudanese leader’s long list of war crimes now
also includes the use of chemical weapons in Darfur.</p>
<p>In the past three years, Netanyahu’s government has <a
href="http://www.haaretz.com/israel-news/.premium-1.758400">spent</a>
$260 million to round up African refugees and bring them
to desert detention centers. Israel has the gall to <a
href="http://www.haaretz.co.il/magazine/tozeret/.premium-1.2914750">categorize</a>
this massive expenditure as “foreign aid.”</p>
<p>In late September, Netanyahu marked the Jewish new year
of Rosh Hashanah with a self-congratulatory address to
members of Likud, summarizing his supposed successes
from the previous 12 months. Netanyahu <a
href="http://www.israelnationalnews.com/News/News.aspx/218361">boasted</a>
of his efforts to deport African refugees.</p>
<p>“Sixty thousand illegals entered,” he said. “Until
today we have already removed 20,000, and we will remove
another 20,000. We’ll remove all the illegal aliens
because they are illegal, even the ones in southern Tel
Aviv.”</p>
<p>Netanyahu has made similar <a
href="https://electronicintifada.net/content/ethnic-cleansing-africans-israel/15099">boasts</a>
in the past. But what set 2016 apart from previous years
was his new willingness to not only point out his
anti-African policies to Israelis in Hebrew, but also to
proudly announce them in English.</p>
<p>Apparently confident that his efforts would be admired
abroad, Netanyahu <a
href="https://twitter.com/IsraeliPM/status/715608794911412224">tweeted</a>
in March: “A strong Israel prevents the passage of
masses of refugees to Europe. The world would be
different if we were not here.”</p>
<p>In a year-end opinion piece, the editorial board of <em>Haaretz</em>
<a href="http://www.haaretz.com/opinion/1.759129">stated</a>
that Netanyahu “should be ashamed,” adding, “Israel can
and must accept the 40,000 Africans living here today,
along with the 6,000 children who were born here.”</p>
<p>For the eight years that the United States was led by a
president of African descent, Netanyahu felt no need to
rein in Israel’s war on Africans. Now that Donald Trump,
the darling of white supremacists, has been elected to
the Oval Office, we can only expect Netanyahu to ramp it
up into an even higher gear.</p>
<p><em>David Sheen is an <a
href="http://www.davidsheen.com/">independent writer
and filmmaker</a>.</em></p>
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