It seems the Jews in the Holy Land have definitely forgotten their past. They have forgotten what things were like for them prior to the 1948 UN resolution establishing the State of Israel. They have forgotten the pogroms in Europe, the Spanish Inquisition and when they were a wandering people, a people without a homeland.

KKKHanukkah Protest In Israel

It is always baffling to me to see the victim become a perpetrator of the very injustice they once cried out against. Such is the case with many Israeli Jews as witnessed in this video of a “Hanukkah” candle lighting rally to protest the presence of Sudanese and Eritrean refugees in south Tel Aviv. Oh, the irony. I mean, can you possibly imagine a group of Americans gathered in a public space in the name of celebrating Christmas and the participants engage in attacking a group of Hispanics, Asians or other ethnic group? It sounds outrageous – does it not?

Well, this is exactly what a group of extremists Israelis did during the week of Hanukkah in south Tel Aviv’s Levinsky Park, led by far right, fanatical and racist Knesset members, Michael Ben-Ari and Aryeh Eldad. Just to give you a glimpse into the demented minds of these two wretched and poor excuse for human beings, let alone political leaders: Michael Ben-Ari inciting a crowd at another anti-African immigrant rally earlier in May said the following in reference to the immigrants:

There are rapists and harassers here. The time for talk is over.

Last summer during a tour of the Israeli-Egyptian border, MK Aryeh Eldad openly and unapologetically said:

“Anyone that penetrates Israel’s border should be shot, a Swedish tourist, Sudanese from Eritrea, Eritreans from Sudan, Gazans from Sinai. Whoever touches Israel’s border – shot.”

Apparently Ben-Ari, Eldad and the many other hooligans who were gathered at the Hanukkah rally are quick to forget. What if the Palestinians who were already living in this land when the hundreds of thousands of Jews from Europe and North Africa immigrated had responded likewise? What if the Philippines, Canada, France and the numerous other countries who took Jews in following their expulsion from European nations had turned them away?

The State of Israel exists today not solely because of the desire of Theodore Herzl or Vladimir Jabotinsky, but because of other non-Jews who looked at the plight of the Jewish people and not only empathized with them but fought on their behalf. It would behoove Ben-Ari, Eldad and all of those calling for the “expulsion” of and violence against African immigrants to remember this.