ISRAEL: AFRICANS DENIED ACCESS TO BOMB SHELTERS

Video circulating online allegedly shows Africans and other foreign nationals in Israel being denied entry to bomb shelters during recent retaliatory missile strikes by Iran. While a few comments suggest the shelters were simply full, many are sceptical about whether it is truly a question of capacity or prejudice. Other recent videos also show foreigners being barred from entering underground facilities - with some Israelis claiming they’re for ‘Jews only.’ Palestinians and Bedouins in particular have also reportedly faced discrimination.

On 15 June, Israel's Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, addressed the nation, saying: ‘The missile doesn’t distinguish, but neither do the first responders, the Home Front Command officials, security forces who come to help us - they don’t distinguish.’ Judging by the videos that are emerging, the Israeli bomb shelters certainly do distinguish - or rather, discriminate. Among those said to have been denied shelter are Palestinian medics, including uniformed nurses.

State-level discrimination - in the form of the ethnic cleansing of Palestinians from their lands for over seven decades - has arguably been a part of Israel since its foundation. The past 20 months of Tel Aviv’s US-backed onslaught on Palestinians in the Occupied Territories only confirm that view.

But there are other examples. In 2013, Israel's Health Ministry launched an investigation after it emerged that Ethiopian-Jewish immigrant women had been given long-acting contraceptive injections - without their full consent or knowledge. Many of these women reported that they were pressured to accept the injections as a condition for immigration, with some stating they were misled to believe the shots were routine vaccinations.