Four Hurt as Africans' Home Torched in Jerusalem
Four African migrants were taken to an Israeli hospital with burns and smoke inhalation on Monday after a deadly arson attempt on the Jerusalem building in which they were living, police said.
The incident, which police described as "very serious," took place in an old two-storey building in a poor neighborhood near the city's Mahane Yehuda market, just after 3:00 am (0000 GMT).
Police said the fire was started in a narrow entrance corridor which led to several apartments inside the building, home to 18 African migrants. On the external walls of the building, someone had sprayed Hebrew-language graffiti reading: "Get out of the neighborhood."
"There were 18 people living in the building, and the corridor leads to all the apartments," police spokesman Micky Rosenfeld told AFP, indicating that all the residents were of African origin.
"It is obvious that the people living there were targeted and not just the building," he said, adding that at least four people were taken to hospital, suffering from burns and smoke inhalation.
The attack took place in a small street off Jaffa Road, with the building's entrance corridor completely blackened by the fire, an AFP correspondent at the scene said, indicating it was the only entrance and exit from the apartments.
The rising number of Africans in Israel has hit the headlines in recent weeks, after a spike in racial tensions led to a riot in southern Tel Aviv, where tens of thousands of migrants live.
The incident occurred when a protest by 1,000 people turned violent after several far-right MPs made inflammatory speeches, with one referring to the migrants as "a cancer."
Demonstrators went on the rampage, smashing up and looting African-run shops and property.
No one was injured, but police arrested 20 people on suspicion of vandalism.
Interior Ministry statistics show there are approximately 60,000 African immigrants who have entered Israel illegally. Some are refugees fleeing persecution in their home nations, but others are economic migrants.
04 June 2012, 15:06
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One would expect from those who suffered from ethnic cleansing by the nazis to be more tolerant ... at least more tolerant from the nazis
04 June 2012, 18:26
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Flame Thrower, worse than Nazis? to remind you who volunteered to "clean the Jews from earth" ?
It was the Arabs with Haj Amin El Husseini who became an honorable General in SS.
Yes is is correct that in our nation also you can find those who hates foreigners (most of them came from North Africa) so we all know what education they got.
However "Best Treatment" the refugees getting from Egyptian army - shooting them in their back or the Bedouin of Sinai who rape them and harvest their organs, so you see we are not the only bad guys in the area.
