An Israeli chief rabbi called black people “monkeys”, amid Jewish state's controversial policy of forcing African migrants back to the continent.
According to Iran's press TV, footage released by Israeli media shows Yitzhak Yosef used a derogatory Hebrew word to refer to black people and went on to call them “monkeys” during his weekly sermon.
Reacting to the comments, New York-based Anti-Defamation League said in a tweet, “racially charged comment made by Israeli Chief Rabbi Yitzhak Yosef, comparing people of color to ‘monkeys,’ is utterly unacceptable.”
Many Sudanese, including hundreds who escaped from conflict and humanitarian disaster in Darfur, have been in Israel for several years, living in legal limbo without formal refugee status, but peaceably, they say.
Now they are caught up in a wave of hostility towards blacks in general, focused on a poor area of south Tel Aviv where they congregate.