![Pro- and anti-Eritrean government protesters clash in Tel Aviv, Israel on September 2, 2023. [Twitter/Screenshot/User: @Jerusalem_Post]](https://images.dailycaller.com/image/width=960,height=411,fit=cover,f=auto/https://cdn01.dailycaller.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/09/Screenshot-2023-09-04-032856-e1693812694944.jpg "Pro- and anti-Eritrean government protesters clash in Tel Aviv, Israel on September 2, 2023. [Twitter/Screenshot/User: @Jerusalem_Post]")
Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu convened a meeting Sunday to plan the immediate expulsion of Eritrean protesters and the repatriation of “all of the remaining illegal infiltrators” from the country following violent demonstrations Saturday, according to an official press release.
“The massive illegal infiltration into Israel from Africa constituted a tangible threat to the future of Israel as a Jewish and democratic state,” Netanyahu said, per the press release. “We blocked this threat by building a fence, which entailed overcoming the opposition of the security establishment and political rivals.”
Israel now has to deal with migrants who entered the country before the wall, the press release noted. Netanyahu’s government reportedly repatriated 12,000 of them but wanted to increase that number. The High Court of Justice rejected proposed new measures that aimed to do that.
Pro- and anti-Eritrean government protesters clashed Saturday near the Eritrean Embassy in southern Tel-Aviv during an event commemorating Eritrean dictator Isaias Afwerki’s 30-year rule, The Associated Press (AP) reported. Thirty police officers and three protesters were reportedly injured. The police reportedly intervened with horses, tear gas, stun grenades and live rounds. (RELATED: Israel To Illegal African Immigrants: Accept A Free Ticket Home Or Go To Prison)
WATCH: Over 100 people were injured as protests in Tel Aviv by Eritrean asylum seekers against the East African nation’s regime turned violent.
Read more: https://t.co/XEM8rIR7ve#Israel | #Riot | (CREDIT: Via @MaarivOnline) pic.twitter.com/DegIhJ1Fal
— The Jerusalem Post (@Jerusalem_Post) September 2, 2023
The protesters crossed a red line, Netanyahu said in the press release. The pro-Eritrean government protesters could not be refugees at the same time and therefore shouldn’t be difficult to remove, he added.
“If they support the regime so much, they would do well to return to their country of origin,” Netanyahu said, per The AP.
Migration is a polarizing issue in the Israeli body politic. Supporters argue Israel should be more welcoming given its origin as a country of Jewish refugees, while opposers argue migrants are harbingers of crime in the lowly neighborhoods of southern Tel-Aviv, The AP noted. The Israeli government reportedly used tactics such as imprisonment, financial coercion and financial incentives to remove migrants from the country.
Eritrean Information Minister Yemane Gebremeskel dubbed anti-Eritrean government demonstrators “foreign thugs” on August 4, The Seattle Times reported.
Similar clashes of varying intensities involving Eritreans have occurred in Giessen, Stockholm, Seattle, Edmonton and Toronto between June and August.