Tel Aviv--Sitting in his sparsely furnished flat in Tel Aviv, Fikre Mariam lowers his eyes and recounts watching footage of his cousin -- a fellow Eritrean asylum seeker -- beheaded by jihadists in Libya.
"It was horrible. I've never seen anything like it in my life," says Mariam, one of tens of thousands of African migrants who has sought asylum in Israel.
"Those people are not human beings -- it's pure terrorism to commit and film atrocities like that."
Mariam's cousin, 30-year-old Tesfay Kidane, was among a group of at least 28 African Christians killed in the graphic video released on April 19 by the Islamic State group in Libya.
Sixteen of the victims were shot in the head while the rest, including Kidane, were beheaded.
The video said the victims were Ethiopians, but Kidane and two others have since been identified as Eritreans who were reportedly trying to reach Europe by sea through Libya after being rejected for asylum in Israel.
Their deaths have thrown the spotlight on the Jewish state's controversial immigration policies, which rights groups say have seen thousands of African asylum seekers coerced into "voluntary" departures.
Kidane's friends and family only learned of his death after the video surfaced, when relatives and a Tel Aviv-based immigrant assistance group identified him and the other two Eritreans.
"It has given me nightmares," says Kidsti Ghezie, another cousin living in the same flat in southern Tel Aviv, where the walls are decorated with Christian icons and images.
"I saw pictures of him sitting in an orange jumpsuit. I didn't want to believe it was him," she says, referring to the clothing IS routinely forces its captives to wear in execution-style videos.
AFP
