The Neve Shaanan pedestrian walkway in south Tel Aviv hummed at a somewhat muted pace at noon on Tuesday, the third day of a nationwide strike by the African asylum seekers community.
For the past several years this walkway has been the epicenter of the community, which was on Tuesday meeting in the thousands a couple blocks away at Lewinsky Park leaving most of the stores on the walkway shuttered.
“I can't keep working like this for long. My workers make NIS 10,000 a month, but even for that money I can't get an Israeli to work here,” Dan said, shrugging his shoulders.Israeli Yisrael Dan hustled around his mobile phone store midday Tuesday, helping customers and taking orders on his phone, alone behind the counter for the third street day. He said he has three Eritrean workers with work permits who are taking part in the strike, and since Sunday, he's been working morning to night.
When asked what he thinks of the protests, he said that while he does believe that the Interior Ministry needs to check the migrants' asylum requests “I really don't feel solidarity with them, from what I understand most of them aren't refugees and they just came here to make money.”
It was a common sentiment on Tuesday, shop-owners expressed a personal fondness for employees or neighboring African store-owners, but would quickly add that they don't believe they're refugees and that the state needs to enforce the law. They also said that with all due respect, protesting won't make a difference.
“If the government's made up their mind what difference does it make? They don't care when Israelis are protesting, you think they'll care when they [African migrants] do?”, asked Moshe, a shoe store owner a few doors down.
Moshe said he was told by the Sudanese shop-owner next door that he was closing and going on strike because he was afraid that other Africans would vandalize his store or attack him, and that intimidation drove others to close as well.
A native of Iran, Moshe said that he knows what it's like to be a refugee, but that he doesn't see the African migrants as being in a similar position as he was when he left Iran for Israel. He also said that he feels that by and large they're good people except for a small minority that drink and fight and commit crimes, causing the Israeli public to fear and dislike the rest of them.
“Most of them are good people who came to make money and then leave, but this whole thing isn't regulated.”
David, the owner of a cellular store near the corner of Har-Tzion and Neve Shaanan, dismissed the protests outright, saying “they can go on strike forever if they want it won't matter. The landlords are pigs, they'll just rent out the stores to someone else.”
He said he hoped the government would deport them all, but also admitted that they form most of the customer base for his store as well.
Down the street at Lewinsky Park a couple hours later, Abed and three Israeli Arab men from Baka al-Gharbiya scurried around the crowd, picking up trash and changing out the garbage cans next to the basketball court. Abed, a contractor for the Tel Aviv municipality said for the past three days his eight Sudanese workers have been on strike, so he's had to improvise.
“The Sudanese are on strike so I had to bring Arabs,” he said, adding that the three men will be staying in Tel Aviv until the strike is off and they go back to their Galilee village. He also said he was told by a couple of his Sudanese employees that they felt intimidated into taking part in the strike.
Like Abed, employers across the Tel Aviv area and elsewhere have had to get creative the last couple days, working extra shifts, as the strike has seen no shortage of restaurant managers and bartenders back in the kitchen, washing dishes while the migrant community protests.
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For the past several years this walkway has been the epicenter of the community, which was on Tuesday meeting in the thousands a couple blocks away at Lewinsky Park leaving most of the stores on the walkway shuttered.
“I can't keep working like this for long. My workers make NIS 10,000 a month, but even for that money I can't get an Israeli to work here,” Dan said, shrugging his shoulders.Israeli Yisrael Dan hustled around his mobile phone store midday Tuesday, helping customers and taking orders on his phone, alone behind the counter for the third street day. He said he has three Eritrean workers with work permits who are taking part in the strike, and since Sunday, he's been working morning to night.
When asked what he thinks of the protests, he said that while he does believe that the Interior Ministry needs to check the migrants' asylum requests “I really don't feel solidarity with them, from what I understand most of them aren't refugees and they just came here to make money.”
It was a common sentiment on Tuesday, shop-owners expressed a personal fondness for employees or neighboring African store-owners, but would quickly add that they don't believe they're refugees and that the state needs to enforce the law. They also said that with all due respect, protesting won't make a difference.
“If the government's made up their mind what difference does it make? They don't care when Israelis are protesting, you think they'll care when they [African migrants] do?”, asked Moshe, a shoe store owner a few doors down.
Moshe said he was told by the Sudanese shop-owner next door that he was closing and going on strike because he was afraid that other Africans would vandalize his store or attack him, and that intimidation drove others to close as well.
A native of Iran, Moshe said that he knows what it's like to be a refugee, but that he doesn't see the African migrants as being in a similar position as he was when he left Iran for Israel. He also said that he feels that by and large they're good people except for a small minority that drink and fight and commit crimes, causing the Israeli public to fear and dislike the rest of them.
“Most of them are good people who came to make money and then leave, but this whole thing isn't regulated.”
David, the owner of a cellular store near the corner of Har-Tzion and Neve Shaanan, dismissed the protests outright, saying “they can go on strike forever if they want it won't matter. The landlords are pigs, they'll just rent out the stores to someone else.”
He said he hoped the government would deport them all, but also admitted that they form most of the customer base for his store as well.
Down the street at Lewinsky Park a couple hours later, Abed and three Israeli Arab men from Baka al-Gharbiya scurried around the crowd, picking up trash and changing out the garbage cans next to the basketball court. Abed, a contractor for the Tel Aviv municipality said for the past three days his eight Sudanese workers have been on strike, so he's had to improvise.
“The Sudanese are on strike so I had to bring Arabs,” he said, adding that the three men will be staying in Tel Aviv until the strike is off and they go back to their Galilee village. He also said he was told by a couple of his Sudanese employees that they felt intimidated into taking part in the strike.
Like Abed, employers across the Tel Aviv area and elsewhere have had to get creative the last couple days, working extra shifts, as the strike has seen no shortage of restaurant managers and bartenders back in the kitchen, washing dishes while the migrant community protests.
*****
With Umugenzi, you can Find Friends, you could Find Jobs, you may Watch Videos, you might Listen to Music, you should Start blogging, you would Interact in Groups, Plan Events, you also are free to Establish your Own Social network, because Umugenzi Network is all about U.
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