Shades of Birmingham– Independence Day attacks on African refugees in South Tel Aviv

Mya Guarnieri reports at +972:

South Tel Aviv’s African community was hit by five Molotov cocktails last night, as Israelis wrapped up their Yom Haatzmaut (Independence Day) celebrations. Four of the Molotov cocktails were thrown into apartments that are home to Africans; one was lobbed into a kindergarten. No injuries were reported.

Police are investigating the incidents that activists call a “coordinated” attack. The African community in Israel has been the target of numerous acts of violence in the past. In January of 2011, for example, a burning tire was thrown into the apartment five Sudanese refugees shared in Ashdod. The men suffered from smoke inhalation and two were hospitalized.

Also in January of 2011, three teenage girls – the Israeli-born, Hebrew-speaking daughters of African migrant workers – were beaten by a group of Jewish teenagers. The attackers, one of whom was armed with a knife, allegedly called them “dirty niggers.” One of the girls needed medical treatment for her injuries.

Again I would insist that Americans have struggled through issues like this, and so who are we as Americans to suspend our values for the sake of an ethnocracy? Well, when religion enters the picture, all bets are off. Peter Beinart’s book ends with a line about God: “I am too small for the greatness of the mercy which God has shown us.” And Leonard Fein’s Huffington Post stable teems with ethnocentrism. Rabbi Eric Yoffie: “is important to emphasize that Zionism does not see the Jewish state as “‘a state of all its citizens.'” Yes, that sort of policy breeds racism. Been there, done that.