Illegal migrants attack Israeli youth on south Tel Aviv soccer field

One Israeli shown in the video appears to be knocked unconscious and lays on the ground, while another frantically yells for an ambulance.

By Lauren Marcus, World Israel News

A viral video showing a group of illegal migrants attacking and seriously injuring Israeli youth on a south Tel Aviv soccer field has sparked outrage on social media.

In the video, around a dozen illegal immigrants from Africa physically assault Israeli youth at the Gan HaTikvah soccer field. According to witnesses, the incident began when the migrants demanded the Israelis leave the soccer field.

When the Israelis refused, the migrants attacked, shoving, pushing and kicking the youth. One Israeli shown in the video appears to be knocked unconscious and lays on the ground, while another frantically yells for an ambulance.

Twitter users called the video “sad” and “shocking.” Several called upon Interior Minister Aryeh Deri to intervene.

But Doron Avrahami, a longtime community activist who has lobbied the government for years to deport the illegal migrants, said the video is just the tip of the iceberg.

Avrahami, who was born and raised in south Tel Aviv, told World Israel News that residents send him similar videos every day.

“There’s incidents like this all the time, in every neighborhood in south Tel Aviv,” he said. “It happens in public gardens, schools, soccer fields, in every place.”

He said that the influx of thousands of illegal migrants into his neighborhood had negatively impacted the residents’ quality of life and feeling of public safety.

Firing back at left-wing groups that argue the presence of the illegal migrants is a humanitarian issue, Avrahami said he had the data to prove that many of the migrants are habitual criminals.

It was a long process, he explained, to obtain data about the rates of criminality among migrants from the police. Originally, a police spokesman said they didn’t want to release the information because it would negatively color the public’s view of the migrants.

“Two years ago, we filed a Freedom of Information request with the police, which forced them to disclose their data. We found that rates of criminality are five times higher among illegal migrants than citizens,” Avrahami told World Israel News.

“The police claim now that the crime rate has gone down. What’s really happened is that the people have lost faith in the police and don’t file complaints anymore,” he said.

Sheffi Paz, also a veteran south Tel Aviv community activist, echoed Avrahami’s sentiments.

She said that violence from migrants towards Israelis was out of control. “These things happen all the time. The only difference is that this time, someone was there to film it,” she told World Israel News.

“You can call this a territorial war. There are people, to whom this neighborhood belongs, and there are outsiders trying to take over their territory. This war is happening in every public space.

“For so much time, the fire has been building. In the end, something will burn.”