Cheap political stunt takes advantage of asylum seekers

ARDC is alarmed by the recent political stunt of Knesset member Dr Michael Ben-Ari and activist Itamar Ben-Gvir on Sunday, June 12. The pair attempted to reveal left wing “hypocrisy” and support their agenda which is to deport all asylum seekers and refugees from Israel. The pair reportedly paid for a bus to transport a group of asylum seekers to Gordon Pool located in affluent North Tel Aviv.

The social experiment failed in its objective to show that Israelis who support asylum seekers and refugees (and tend to be from more affluent, left-wing areas of Israel) are ignorant and only do so when not directly exposed to the population.

As Dara Levy-Bernstein of the ARDC explains, in Israel there is much tension between people from Tel Aviv and those from the ‘periphery’. Even within Tel Aviv, this tension exists between those living in the wealthier central and northern neighborhoods and those who live in  the neglected southern areas. This has much to do with class and race yet becomes intertwined with politics. There is a generally held belief that the left is mostly composed of affluent Tel Aviv residents, who live in a bubble and are able to believe the things they do because social problems do not impact their lives in a concrete way. Further, people who come from more disadvantaged areas, especially those neighborhoods with high numbers of asylum seekers and migrant workers, ‘understand’ the problem because they live with it. This stunt attempted to reveal that everyone is racist - even those who condemn racism. If they too were to be confronted with asylum seekers in their daily life, they would react exactly the same way.

ARDC denounces Ben-Ari’s and Ben-Gvir’s blatant use of vulnerable asylum seekers in order to push their political campaign aimed to undermine basic human rights as dictated in the Refugee Convention. The pair used their public position to take advantage of an unsuspecting group and such tactics must not be tolerated.

ARDC further notes the discrepancies between the English and Hebrew reports. This Hebrew article by NRG Online presents photographs with “Israeli” people happily remaining in the pool. It also refers to asylum seekers as “migrant workers”. On the other hand, this English article by the Jerusalem Post  reports that no one was willing to offer their opinion on the asylum seeker population, aside from a couple attempting to warn the asylum seekers of the real purpose of the outing. Yet another article shows a different outcome from the “experiment”, and suggests that most Israelis left the pool which is clear from the footage was not the case.

ARDC calls on Ben-Ari and Ben-Gvir to disclose whether public funds were used for this exercise which has proven nothing but their lack of foresight and ignorance regarding Israeli public opinion.