BICOM

Israel Police arrested a total of 17 people during a protest against African migrants in south Tel Aviv last night. The protesters expressed their dismay with the government’s dealings with the growing impact of asylum seekers in south Tel Aviv.

Police arrested 17 people during the protest, after several protesters smashed the windows of a grocery store that served the migrant workers community, broke the windows of a barbershop and looted it.

Earlier Wednesday, Israel’s Attorney General Yehuda Weinstein said he supported the deportation of South Sudanese migrants if an investigation found that they are not legally entitled to refuge. Next week Weinstein will argue before the Jerusalem District Court that if individual checks establish that migrants from Africa do not face any threat to their lives in South Sudan there is no legal obstacle to deport them.

The Jerusalem District Court recently issued a temporary order prohibiting the deportation of Sudanese and Eritrean migrants until it rules on a petition filed by five human rights organisations against the state’s intent to deport them.