Sheffi Paz

Sheffi Paz in a demonstration opposite the President of Israel's house in Talbiya, Jerusalem, October 2017

Since 2012, Paz has had a significant role in the movement against African immigration to Israel, as a member of the organization "Otef Tahana HaMerkazit". Paz led a branch of the organization, which calls itself the "South Tel Aviv Liberation Front". She attempts to vilify the asylum seeking community through video.[4] She interviews with the media, organizes violent protests and hangs signs with the goal of convincing the Israeli public that the migrant population in south Tel Aviv causes serious problems for the native residents. She often uses violent means, including pepper-spraying a guard at an elementary school,[5] threatening an Israeli Supreme Court justice,[6] vandalizing the home of the Chief Justice of the Israeli Supreme Court,[7] vandalizing the European Union office in Israel,[8] and breaking into preschools for migrant children.[9]

With this goal she has partnered with various right-wing Israeli organizations. She protests the refugees' use of public parks and schools. She frequently violently confronts and harasses human rights activists that advocate for refugees, claiming that they are violating the rights of the Jewish, low socio-economic class residents, who feel abandoned by the state and city governments. Although she voted for Meretz for decades, her radical views and actions, along with her confrontations with the Israeli left, have pushed her political views rightwards.[10]

Since August 2017 Paz has led weekly demonstrations opposite the house of the former head of the Supreme Court of Israel, Miriam Naor, in Rehavia, Jerusalem, and outside the house of the current head Esther Hayut in Tzahala, north Tel Aviv.[11][12] In November 2017 she was arrested during a protest that she led opposite the house of the head of the Supreme Court.[13]

Paz has had numerous encounters with African asylum seekers in which she incites violence, and has been arrested 14 times as a result of her violent behavior.[14] In a 2016 interview with Hilo Glazer from Haaretz newspaper, she openly admitted to siding with activists who call for "Death to the Sudanese!"[15] She also has had a restraining order placed against her by social activist Sigal Avivi.[14]

In October 2017 Paz created a crowdfunding campaign in order to fund activism against Israel's asylum seekers, which raised about 500 thousand shekels.[16]

In September 2019, Paz and bereaved mother Meirav Hajaj illegally vandalised the entrance of office of the European Union delegation in Israel.[17] They spray-painted slogans in red paint which read: "EU get out" and "German money kill Jews" [sic].[18] In January 2020, Paz and her co-conspirators were charged with conspiring to commit a crime, intentionally causing property damage and vandalism.[8]

In December 2020, Paz was also indicted for breaking into a preschool for migrant children and endangering children.[19] The offences cited in the indictment include destruction of property, obstructing an investigation, criminal conspiracy, breaking and entering and invasion of privacy.[20] In preparation for this break-in, Paz and her fellow anti-immigration activists wrote to one-another blatantly racist messages including “thumbtacks should be scattered in the preschools and not the roads so as not to injure the white residents.”[20] Paz also planned for future graffiti, of which she said: “What’s important is that it be offensive toward the children.”[20]