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Israeli president decries attacks on migrants

31 May 2012 19:41 (UTC +04:00)

Baku-APA. Israeli President Shimon Peres on Thursday condemned a rash of violent attacks in recent weeks perpetrated by Israelis against African migrants and infiltrators, APA reports quoting Xinhua.

A total of 8,650 foreigners have entered Israel since the beginning of the year, according to Population Registry numbers, a 200 percent jump since last May.

However, "We are obligated to respect the stranger and the other in our midst and to uphold their rights as human beings," Peres said, quoting from the Bibleâ€™s Book of Deuteronomy at the swearing-in ceremony for new judges, The Jerusalem Post reported.

Earlier in the day, a court indicted an 11-member Israeli gang of 14-to-18-year-olds on charges of beating and robbing several Sudanese and Eritreans migrants in south Tel Aviv in recent weeks.

State prosecutors charged the 10 boys and one girl with involvement in criminal acts, violent assault, robbery, committing bodily harm, and robbery, according to the Ynet news site.

As well, justice officials slapped a racist motive on the charges, which could double the maximum sentence if the accused are found guilty.

The suspects "did this through serious violence, brutality, and bullying, and in some of the incidents even used weapons," the prosecutor said.

"The suspects chose to attack (the) victims at random, without any previous acquaintance, simply because they encountered them and because (the victims) are foreigners," according to the indictment.

The previous night, some 200 Israeli protestors at a south Tel Aviv rally called for deporting the mostly Sudanese and Eritreans, which make up a majority of the over 50,000 legal and illegal asylum-seekers that have infiltrated into Israel across its southern border with Egypt in recent years.

The rally echoed a larger event of some 1,000 people a week ago, at which dozens ransacked African-owned businesses and attacked dark-skinned people in the streets.

The violence, and tensions between local resident and their new neighbors, however, has not abated the ongoing flood of newcomers.

More than 2,000 Africans and others infiltrated across Israelâ€™s southern border with Egypt in the past month, with more than a 1, 000 from Eritrea, 650 from Sudan, and another 200 from other countries, according to government figures.