REPORT<\/a>: Violence surged in the streets of Tel Aviv as a 1000-strong protest against African immigrants seeking asylum in Israel turned violent.
\nResidents of a low-income Tel Aviv neighbourhood descended to the streets, waving Israeli flags and chanting \u201cDeport the Sudanese\u201d and \u201cInfiltrators get out of our homes\u201d to protest against the increase of African migrants moving into the area and the country.
\nThe protest rapidly turned violent and police arrested 17 people with charges ranging from assault to vandalism. Some of them were still beating up migrants when they were arrested.
\nProtesters in the Hatikva neighbourhood set trash cans alight, broke some stores window and attacked African migrants who were passing-by. They also attacked an African migrant driving through the area and broke his car\u2019s windows.
\nReports suggest the protesters targeted local shops known to have African migrants as customers.
\nAnother group of demonstrators stopped a shuttle taxi searched for migrant workers among the passengers, while banging on the windows, the newspaper Haaretz reported.
\nThe protesters were backed by Likud Knesset member Miri Regev who participated in the march and said \u201cthe Sudanese were a cancer in our body\u201d, Haaretz \u2018s report added.
\nProtesters complained about Prime Minister\u2019s Benjamin Netanyahu\u2019s handling of the asylum seekers \u201cproblem\u201d with some even carrying banners in support of Interior Minister Eli Yishai.
\nYishai had called for the detention and expulsion of all asylum seekers earlier this week.
\nInterviewing Interior Minister Eli Yishai, Israeli Army Radio likened the violence to pogrom attacks on Jews in 19th century Europe.
\nYishai retorted by saying Sudanese and Eritreans migrants were responsible for a rise in crime.
\n\u201cI cannot judge a man whose daughter gets raped. I cannot judge a young woman who cannot walk home,\u201d said Yishai,
\n\u201cI cannot under any circumstances judge people who get abused and harmed, and who are then confronted by the state, which says, \u2018Why do you behave this way to the foreigners?’\u201d
\nThe protests came as last week, an Israeli man was charged with arson after he threw seven Molotov cocktails at the homes of African migrants.<\/p>\n