Darfur Refugees – Where Will They Go Now
Border anarchy Jerusalem Post, Israel -
Among the more disconcerting anomalies in the judgmental pronouncements by purported human-rights advocates is their scathing criticism of Israel in recent …
‘Israel creating unnecessary drama’ Ynetnews, Israel -
Sudanese minister promises his country ‘will find the way to deal with refugees’. Israel to continue aiding those fleeing Darfur until international …
Wolfson doctors volunteer to treat refugees Jerusalem Post, Israel -
By JUDY SIEGEL-ITZKOVICH A large number of physicians from Wolfson Medical Center in Holon volunteered this week to treat refugees from Darfur and Sudan who …
Government to set up tent city for Darfur refugees Ynetnews, Israel -
The government will set up a tent city in the Negev to house dozens of Sudanese refugees who infiltrate Israel from Egypt almost daily, Internal Security …
Israel Grappling With Influx of Sudanese Refugees CNSNews.com, VA -
By Julie Stahl Jerusalem (CNSNews.com) – The word has spread among Sudanese and other African refugees and job seekers that Israel — the only democracy in …
Egyptian Police Cracks Down on Illegal African FOX News -
EL-ARISH, Egypt — Some 37 Africans, mostly refugees from Darfur, were arrested Friday in the Sinai Peninsula by Egyptian authorities who said they were …
Unwanted in Israel Al Jazerra: By Sherine Tadros at the Egyptian-Israeli border
More than five hundred Sudanese refugees have fled to Israel in the last two months to escape genocide in Darfur. Now Israel is threatening to deport them.
No refugee status
Sigal Rosen, from the hotline for migrant workers in Tel Aviv, said: “The government started arresting the Sudanese under the infiltration law – a law made in emergency times; a law under which there was no possibility to release them for a very long period of detention.
To Israel, Sudan is an ‘enemy state’, and the Sudanese, ‘enemy nationals’.
“They aren’t getting refugee status and there are deportation orders hanging over the heads of all of them.
Identity crisis
Eytan Schwartz, spokesperson for the Committee for Advancement of Refugees of Darfur (Card), said that Israel has a moral obligation to take the Sudanese in.
“We are a country founded by refugees, we are a people who were persecuted for thousands of years. We of all people should know what it’s like to be people of a nation that nobody wants to take in.
“That’s why we have a moral, historical obligation to take them in, even if they’re from an enemy country.”
But the Israeli government has said the situation is now at a crisis point and closing the border or deporting them back to Egypt may be the only solution.
But the Israeli government has said the situation is now at a crisis point and closing the border or deporting them back to Egypt may be the only solution.
Avishai Braverman, a Knesset member, said: “People heard that Israel may be a haven … [But] we are such a small country, we cannot do that. We have our own problems with our own immigrants.
“You can do certain things, but it’s not in our capacity to solve the problem of all the Sudanese … to say that we can absorb hundreds of thousands when we cannot even take care of our own, that’s a nice world but its unrealistic and unfair.”
To many, those Sudanese seeking refuge in Israel are viewed as a threat to the Jewish identity.
“Israel has an identity challenge,” Schwartz said. “We are a Jewish democracy and this is an example, a perfect example, of the negotiation of these two identities.
“How can you be a democracy with human rights, with values of accepting people from all nations, but you still want to maintain your Jewish identity? … That means always maintaining a Jewish majority.”
With every new arrival, Israel’s dilemma deepens. At the same time, for the Sudanese who make the journey with so much hope, life in Israel now holds an uncertain future.
“To say that we can absorb hundreds of thousands when we cannot even take care of our own, that’s a nice world but its unrealistic and unfair” Avishai Braverman, Israeli Knesset member
Where will they go? Why can’t responsible countries make their home safe so they don’t have to go anywhere? Why is all this allowed to happen, Oil is not at stake? SHAME on the world!
July 9th, 2007 at 4:40 pm
It’s all just a free for all ain’t it? This is another proof that the bush crime family’s crazy “axis of evil” and “global war on terror” were and are just oversimplified and poor rationalizations for the failed imperialist foreign policy the neoconartists have been pushing on the rest of us.
The scientifically impossible I do right away
The spiritually miraculous takes a bit longer
July 9th, 2007 at 6:57 pm
Where will they go? Why can’t responsible countries make their home safe so they don’t have to go anywhere? Why is all this allowed to happen, Oil is not at stake? SHAME on the world!
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Yes, it’s horrible! I agree with shame on the world!