At least 150 people were injured in a demonstration by Eritrean refugees in the Israeli coastal city of Tel Aviv on Saturday. The police opened fire when the Eritreans clashed with political opponents from their homeland. Report that Israeli media. Fourteen people are seriously injured in hospital, eleven of them with gunshot wounds. At least 30 officers have also been hospitalized.
A rally was held on Saturday at the Eritrean embassy in southern Tel Aviv, where supporters of Isaias Afewerki’s regime celebrated 30 years of independence for the African country. Hundreds of regime opponents took to the streets in response to the party. They had called on the Israeli authorities to call off the event and warned that violence would otherwise erupt.
Tasers, knives and batons
A police commander tells to the AP news agency that the situation escalated when regime supporters broke through the erected barricades: “To throw stones and attack the police.” The police officer says 39 people have been arrested and tasers, knives and batons have been seized.
It is not the first time that violence has broken out around Eritrean diaspora parties. Last month, more than 50 people were injured in the Swedish capital Stockholm when opponents and supporters of Afewerki clashed. Governments therefore regularly choose to ban such festivals, as the Dutch municipalities of Rijswijk and Beverwijk did last year.
Elections and freedom of the press
Due to its geographical proximity, Israel has a relatively large Eritrean community. It is estimated that more than 17,000 Eritreans reside in the country. They fled the regime of 77-year-old Afewerki and traveled to Israel via Sudan and Egypt.
Under Afewerki (who has been in power against Ethiopia since shortly after the end of the independence war in 1991), Eritrea is known as one of the most repressive countries in the world. There have never been elections and there is no freedom of the press.
Eritreans who have fled their country often face harassment from pro-regime supporters abroad, including through Eritrean diplomatic posts. Moreover, parties such as in the embassy in Tel Aviv are often organized to raise money for Afewerki’s regime.
Also read this post from 2022: Municipality cancels Eritrean party that organization wanted to move to Beverwijk