Crackdown on African Immigrants Tugs at Israel's Soul Abir Sultan/European Pressphoto Agency Israeli immigration inspectors questioned Africans at a crowded apartment in a neighborhood in south Tel Aviv where many sub-Saharan immigrants live. TEL AVIV - One by one, immigration inspectors escorted the migrants out of a dilapidated building into an alley teeming with African-run stores and hair salons. Then, they were led onto a waiting bus, in the first steps on the way to deportation to their native South Sudan. One woman grasped a leopard-print purse. A man left with a book in his hand. Some wore brightly colored shirts and held their heads high. One shouted "Juba! Juba!" - the name of South Sudan's capital - and raised his hands in a victory sign. "It must be done," said Mor Sheffer, an Israeli bystander, "or tomorrow we will have no country and we will have to look for another one." Many residents here in the Neve Shaanan area of south Tel Aviv complain of rampant crime by migrants and say that it has become "Soweto," a reference to the site of a 1976 uprising in South Africa. At a recent protest fanned by right-wing politicians, one lawmaker described the Africans, known here as "infiltrators," as "a cancer in our body." Later, Africans" stores and apartments were attacked. But the government clampdown is also ripping at Israel's soul. For some, the connotations of roundups and the prospect of mass detentions cut too close to the bone. "I feel I am in a movie in Germany, circa 1933 or 1936," said Orly Feldheim, 46, a daughter of Holocaust survivors, as she doled out food last week to a long line of immigrants in the neighborhood's Levinsky Park. Since 2005, about 60,000 sub-Saharan Africans have surreptitiously crossed the porous border from Egypt into Israel after traversing the rugged desert of the Sinai Peninsula. The rising tensions caused by their presence have prompted the government to announce a tough new policy to stem the influx of African immigrants and asylum seekers. The interior minister, Eli Yishai, has vowed to clear the country of all illegal immigrants within three years. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu contends that most of them are economic immigrants and that they threaten the Jewish character of Israel. On Sunday, he said that all new arrivals would immediately be placed in detention. Mr. Netanyahu told his cabinet that Israel was "building holding facilities to house tens of thousands of infiltrators until they can be sent out of the country." For now, most of the immigrants and asylum seekers - about 50,000 - cannot be deported, in line with international conventions. They come from Sudan and Eritrea, countries considered too dangerous for their repatriation, and so they are afforded temporary collective protection in Israel. That protection was recently lifted for immigrants from South Sudan. On June 7, a Jerusalem court ruled that it was safe enough to repatriate them to South Sudan, a newly independent nation that has diplomatic ties with Israel. There are 1,500 South Sudanese here, according to Israeli officials; South Sudanese activists put the number at 700. In recent days, about 300 South Sudanese have been detained for hearings pending deportation. Hundreds more have agreed to leave voluntarily to avoid arrest and to qualify for a departure grant of $1,300. The first planeload was to depart late Sunday. Some immigrants tell harrowing tales of cruelty by Bedouin smugglers in Sinai. They recounted how, after dashing across the border, at risk of being shot by Egyptian officers, they sought out the Israeli border patrols. The soldiers who picked them up, they said, told them they were safe and welcomed them to Israel. The immigrants were then taken to Saharonim, a prison near the border, and registered. Israel carried out no background checks to sort the genuine asylum seekers from opportunists or fugitives. Most, mainly Eritreans and Sudanese, were released after a few days under the collective protection provision. They were put on buses and dropped off at Levinsky Park or other locations, ending up in a kind of limbo. Their visas state that they are not permitted to work. The new government measures include hefty fines for employers of illegal immigrants. Most immigrants end up doing odd jobs for low wages.