Around 10,000 Jews and Arabs demonstrated in Tel Aviv on Friday in protest at a rising tide of extremist sentiment in Israel that they warn is posing a growing threat to democracy in the country. The march, which organisers said included almost 1,000 refugees and asylum-seekers from Sudan, Somalia and other parts of Africa, was timed to coincide with International Human Rights Day.
More than 120 Israeli rights groups and NGOs joined the second annual Human Rights March, organised by the Association for Civil Rights in Israel (ACRI). As they marched through the streets to Rabin Square, demonstrators raised flags emblazoned with "Human rights apply to everyone" and "Let me live with liberty and dignity," while others read: "Asylum seekers are not criminals."
"It was a show of force by the human rights community in Israel marching in support of human rights, democracy and equality for all of Israel's citizens," ACRI's executive director Hagai El-Ad told AFP. "It was also an expression of protest against the rising tide of racism and about the government's inaction in advocating equal rights," he said.
"What has happened over the last 18 months is very serious. Wherever you look, there is discrimination," he said, adding it had been "a bad year for human rights" in Israel with increasing attempts to push through racist and anti-democratic bills. "Democracy is under attack on every front. And attacks on democracy are coming from within the government itself."
At the rally, organisers read out a letter of support from Abdullah Abu Rahma, a Palestinian activist serving time in jail on charges of "incitement" for his role in organising non-violent protests against Israel's controversial West Bank separation barrier.
They also read out a letter from a Jewish Israeli from the northern town of Safed who has received threatening letters after having rented out his property to Arabs. The move took on national resonance this week after several hundred rabbis signed a paper urging Jews not to rent or sell property to non-Jews.
The call was widely slammed as racist and prompted a chorus of condemnation, including from Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. But there has so far been no move against the signatories, most of whom are state employees. ACRI's El-Ad said the government's lack of action spoke volumes.
"Israel's foreign minister speaks at the UN General Assembly about the removal of Arab citizens from Israel and he doesn't lose his position, the chief rabbi of Safed, a state employee, tells people not to rent to Arabs and he doesn't lose his job," he said.