Dozens protest in Tel Aviv against African migrants following rape

Several dozen Israelis protested in south Tel Aviv on Monday evening against African migrants following the alleged rape of an 83-year-old woman by an Eritrean man.The protesters marched near the Tel Aviv central bus station led by far-right lawmaker Michael Ben Ari from the Ozma LeIsrael (Force to Israel) Party, who had spearheaded similar protests in May and June. I call to issue a temporary order to deport all the infiltrators back to Africa, Ben Ari said. The area, home to thousands of labor migrants and asylum seekers who illegally entered Israel from across the Egyptian border, has become an epicenter of cheap migrant housing, drug trafficking and prostitution over the past decade.Yaffa Cohen, 42, a resident of south Tel Aviv, said she was scared of the migrants in the streets. They walk around here drunk at night, Im afraid to go out. Id like to see all the people that call us racists take them in and live near them. Eritrean and Sudanese refugees living in the area expressed the same kind of fear over the different kind of violence. I chose not to go to work today, I was too scared, an Eritrean woman who asked to remain anonymous told Xinhua on Monday. Last time, my friends store was broken into, they just look at us with so much hate. They think ... were all thieves. Thats not true. There are rapists and thieves everywhere. But theyve decided were to blame, so what can you do about it?The Association of Human Rights in Israel called 2012 a record in incitement against African migrants, after dozens of attacks targeting migrants occurred. The fuse for the fresh round of protests, the Eritrean assailant, in his early 20s, has been arrested by the police, Israeli media reported Monday. The man spotted the woman leave her apartment near the citys central bus station and pulled her to a courtyard before he repeatedly raped and beat her for hours, police spokesman Mickey Rosenfeld told Xinhua. Rosenfeld, however, noted that the majority of incidents that take place there and involve migrants are mostly petty crimes: stealing cellular phones and alcoholic beverages from kiosks. Rape is a very rare incident, especially that of an elderly woman, he said.According to year-end government data released on Monday, 10,300 African migrants crossed into Israel from its border with Egypt in 2012. Interior Minister Eli Yishai, an outspoken advocate of harsh legal measures to stem the tide of asylum seekers, announced in May the Going Home repatriation program, citing the demographic threat to the Jewish character of the state. Since the programs inception, nearly 2,000 South Sudanese have been deported.