Sheffi Paz | |
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שפי פז | |
 Paz in 2020 | |
| Born | (1952-06-18)18 June 1952 (age 72) |
| Nationality | Israeli |
| Occupation | Editor |
| Known for | opposingillegal immigration to Israel |
Sheffi Paz (Hebrew:שפי פז; born 18 June 1952) is an Israeli activist against illegal immigration and border infiltration, living in southTel Aviv. In the past she was an activist in the Israeli political partyMeretz, and since 2012 she has been one of the leaders in the movement againstillegal immigration to Israel, and the concentration of these infiltrators in the old neighborhoods of south Tel Aviv.
Paz was born inŁódź,Poland in 1952 toHolocaust survivor parents. At the age of four she madealiyah with her parents, and grew up inHolon, Israel.[1] She participated in theyouth movementHashomer Hatzair. After theSix-Day War, when she was 15, she participated in protests in Tel Aviv supportingIsraeli settlements.[1] For hermandatory military service in theIsraeli Defense Forces, she served in theTechnology and Maintenance Corps.[1]
After coming out, Paz became aleft-wing activist and was a member of theMeretz party for decades. She demonstrated withPeace Now inSebastia against the settlers ofElon Moreh, against Israeli settlements, and in the summer of 2011 she participated in theIsraeli social justice protests.[2] Paz was a lesbian activist for LGBT rights, and was a member of the feminist lesbian associationKlaf. She participated in protest shifts outside of the house of then-presidentEzer Weizman, after he madehomophobic public statements, and she stood on the side ofdrag queens in the IsraeliWigstock riots of 1998.[2]
Until 1995 she lived next toHabima Theatre. In 1996 she and her partner chose to move to theShapira neighborhood in south Tel Aviv, because of its multicultural and diverse nature.[1] In her words, she was friendly with members of the immigrant population, particularly with twoNigerian families in her building.[1] In 2002, during a wave of deportations ordered byAriel Sharon, she even hid a Nigerian migrant in her house when the immigration police were spread out in the area. Later, however, her views began to change, and she became active in anti-refugee organizations.
In the municipal elections for Tel Avivcity council in 2013, Paz came in sixth place among candidates of the "Southern Faction" party.[3] The party won one seat and did not enter the city council.
Since 2012, Paz has had a significant role in the movement againstAfrican 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 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,[4] threatening an Israeli Supreme Court justice,[5] vandalizing the home of the Chief Justice of the Israeli Supreme Court,[6] vandalizing the European Union office in Israel,[7] and breaking into preschools for migrant children.[8]
With this goal she has partnered with variousright-wing Israeli organizations. She protests the migrants' use of public parks and schools. She frequently violently confronts and harasseshuman rights activists that advocate for refugees, claiming that they are violating the rights of the Jewish, lowsocio-economic class residents, who feel abandoned by the state and city governments. Although she voted forMeretz for decades, her radical views and actions, along with her confrontations with the Israeli left, have pushed her political views rightwards.[9]
Since August 2017 Paz has led weekly demonstrations opposite the house of the former head of theSupreme Court of Israel,Miriam Naor, inRehavia,Jerusalem, and outside the house of the current headEsther Hayut inTzahala, north Tel Aviv.[10][11] In November 2017 she was arrested during a protest that she led opposite the house of the head of the Supreme Court.[12]
Paz has had numerous encounters with African migrants in which she allegedly incites violence, and has been arrested 14 times as a result of her violent behavior.[13] In a 2016 interview with Hilo Glazer fromHaaretz newspaper, she openly admitted to siding with activists who call for "Death to the Sudanese!"[14] She also has had a restraining order placed against her by social activistSigal Avivi.[13]
In October 2017 Paz created acrowdfunding campaign in order to fund activism against African migrants, which raised about 500 thousandshekels.[15]
In September 2019, Paz and bereaved mother Meirav Hajaj vandalised the entrance of office of the European Union delegation in Israel.[16] They spray-painted slogans in red paint which read: "EU get out" and "German money kill Jews" [sic].[17] In January 2020, Paz and her co-conspirators were charged with conspiring to commit a crime, intentionally causing property damage and vandalism.[7]
In December 2020, Paz was also indicted for breaking into a preschool for migrant children and endangering children.[18] The offences cited in the indictment include destruction of property, obstructing an investigation, criminal conspiracy, breaking and entering and invasion of privacy.[19] 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.”[19] Paz also planned for future graffiti, of which she said: “What’s important is that it be offensive toward the children.”[19]
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