Videos in which Israeli boys and young men have recorded themselves harassing, beating, and humiliating foreign workers, the vast majority of whom being restaurant and cleaning workers from East Asian countries, have been spreading across social media in recent weeks.
A large portion of the videos has been spread on TikTok.
The publications, which have accumulated hundreds of thousands of views and sometimes tens of thousands of likes, show a similar pattern: a group of boys riding electric bicycles or scooters who spot a foreign worker on the street, usually late at night or early in the morning, before approaching.
In the video, the young men kicked the worker's bicycle or electric scooter, making him fall to the ground, and then, instead of helping, continued to beat, kick, pull their hair, laugh, and otherwise humiliate them.
Some of the shared posts are accompanied by music and subtitles, such as "Another one has fallen."
The accounts that upload the content are typically anonymous or just strings of numbers and emojis.
There is no identifying profile picture, no stories, no comments. Instead, the profiles simply show the videos of violence, which tend to disappear after a few days, before the social media platform on which they are posted has time to remove them.
Workers know if they complain, they will be deported, a Tel Aviv volunteer says
"I see this happen a lot," said Michal, a 28-year-old from Tel Aviv, who volunteers at a company that employs foreign workers. "These workers come to work cleaning streets at 4-5 in the morning or at night, alone, without [knowledge of Hebrew], without the ability to complain. They know that if they complain, they may be deported. So they keep quiet. And these boys know exactly that."
One of the videos that managed to stay online for more than 48 hours (before being removed) showed a boy of about 16-17 years old kicking a cleaning worker's bicycle on Ibn Gvirol Street in Tel Aviv.
The worker fell, his head hitting the pavement, and the boys laughed and shouted, "Get up, get up!" as they filmed in slow motion.
Joseph, a 44-year-old cleaning worker from East Asia, employed in Rishon LeZion, said, "It happened to me twice. Boys on electric bikes pushed me, laughed, and took pictures. I don't know why. I'm just working. Now I'm afraid to ride my bike at night."
The Israel Police have yet to comment on the incidents.