Thousands Of Israelis Protest Goverment Decision To Build "Detention Camps" For African Refugees

"This isn't a refugee camp because a refugee camp is intended for humanitarian purposes. Israel isn't even constructing a holding facility. What it's constructing is a ghetto – a concentration camp. The only kind of people to be imprisoned there are people of African origin."

Thousands in Tel Aviv protest plan for refugee detention facility
Israelis march through Tel Aviv for refugees' rights; refugees also march carrying signs reading 'Torture and persecution in Eritrea, detention facility in Israel.'
By Ilan Lior • Ha’aretz

Thousands of Israelis marched through the streets of Tel Aviv on Friday morning in protest against a government plan to construct a massive detention facility for foreigners infiltrating into Israel via the country's southern border with Egypt.

While protesting through Tel Aviv's Rothchild Avenue, the activists said that the government has reached a new low in its "aggressive and racist" treatment of refugees and asylum seekers.

The director of Amnesty International in Israel, Itay Epstein, said that the demonstrators call on the government to refrain from building the holding facility. Epstein added that the government must "examine the refugees' requests in a fair and transparent manner and grant them all their rights as refugees."

The protesters also warned that Israel's detention facility "will be no less dangerous than Sudan."

Many refugees from Sudan and Eritrea also participated in the rally, carrying signs with slogans such as "We asked for refuge, we got prison" and "Torture and persecution in Eritrea, detention facility in Israel."

Mubarak Salaa, a refugee from Darfur, told the crowd the horrifying story of his life in the village.

"We are tired of being told that we are terrorists and that we brought diseases to Israel. People say that we just came to work, and take Israel's money and go back home. That's not true," Salaa said. "I ask to be allowed to live here until there is peace in my country."

Another refugee, from Eritrea, said that the refugees need protection. "There is a big problem for refugees – our situation is getting worse instead of getting better," she said.

"We are asylum seekers. We didn't come here to work – we aren't criminals. We come from a prison and we don't need another one. The government must understand that we are refugees," she emphasized.

In addition to refugees, dozens of elementary school students also took part in the rally, from the democratic school Kehila in Tel Aviv. One of the teachers said that a few third graders initiated the move, when they heard the story of the refugees from an Eritrean refugee who works at the school as a janitor.

On Wednesday, several hundred people, mostly residents of south Tel Aviv, held a demonstration against the presence of foreign workers and refugees in their neighborhoods.

The demonstration, held outside the entrance to the market in the working class Hatikva neighborhood, was held under the banner "No more fear in the neighborhoods, send the infiltrators back home."

MK Dov Hanin (Hadash), speaking at Friday's protest, said that in this issue there are perpetrators and there are victims. "The first victims are the refugees, who are escaping persecution in Eritrea and in Sudan. The second victims are the residents of southern Tel Aviv neighborhood, where there is already discrimination and distress and now refugees as well," he said.

"The people responsible for this are the people on the far-right who try to incite hate and turn the residents of south Tel Aviv against the refugees. The Jews were refugees themselves – how quickly we forgot our history," Hanin said.

Singer Alma Zohar, who participated in the protest march, called the holding facility the government plans to construct a "concentration camp."

"This isn't a refugee camp because a refugee camp is intended for humanitarian purposes. Israel isn't even constructing a holding facility. What it's constructing is a ghetto – a concentration camp. The only kind of people to be imprisoned there are people of African origin," said Zohar.

Comments

[YbM]

no racism there, the brits run such camps for many decades for vietnamese boatpeople. never heard anybody complaining neither in israel or the uk. sudanese don't have to come to israel exclusively.

[YbM]

oops, i omitted to mention that the camps were in hongkong while the brits accupied the colony.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vietnamese_people_in_Hong_Kong

[nachos]

Israel building concentration camps. The only thing missing is the ovens. Does Israel understand what will happen to these people when they are returned to their own countries.

Any Rabbi reading this article and stays quiet should bow their heads in shame.

[nobody]

A ghetto is a concentration camp? Wow! Rewrite the history books! I had no idea that Jews were in concentration camps in the 1800's Europe.

[FrumButSentient]

I'm no friend of the Charedim, the right wing-nuts, and the other assorted box of fruits and nuts. Having said that, however:

1) Israel should not have to receive all (legal/illegal) immigrants who want to come there. Deportation of illegals should be (and is not) just as high a priority in Israel as it should be in the USA. The fact that it is not is what causes the problems.

2) Having GOTTEN all these immigrants - the temporarily coarse, but ultimately just mode of action is to immediately deport any illegal immigrant - thus forestalling the establishment of "holding pens" "detention camps" or whatever you want to call them. Not being initially "stern" and trying to be humanitarian, ultimately causes Israel to be un-humanitarian. Neither Israel (nor the USA) is the teat for the world, and until other nations clean up their act, we should not have to stand idly by housing, feeding, and giving succour to the worlds drek at our cost, while only receiving the worlds insults.

Short term din is sometimes long term chesed. Kicking illegals out immediately rather than "rounding them up" is one of them.

[Shmarya]

Posted by: FrumButSentient | December 26, 2010 at 12:54 PM

You sound just like the Swiss and other countries that turned away Jewish refugees just before and during WW2.

Since you claim to be frum, how do you get around the biblical command to treat strangers (in context, clearly refugees) with kindness?

[yidandahalf]

I completely agree with FrumButSentient - immediate deportation for any illegal entrant.

[Mr. Apikoros]

The fairest situation is for illegals who claim refugee status to be help in containment camps until their case is heard, and adjudicated.

Other illegals who sneak in to Israel should be immediately deported. To compare immigrants from Eritrea and Cote d'Ivoire to Jews fleeing the Nazis is being extremely disingenuous. The Jews fleeing Hitler were (1) much more likely to be murdered than economic refugees from Eritrea and Cote d'Ivorie, and (2) well-educated.

One third minor detail: Countries such as the US and Canada had plenty of room for Jewish refugees, even during the Great Depression. In 1940, the US population was 140 million, about 40 per square mile (counting Alaska). Even today, it's about 80 per square mile, which is relatively unpopulated.

Israel, on the other hand, squeezes in more than 7 million in an area the size of New Jersey (about 1,000 per square mile), and unlike NJ, which has roughly the same population as Israel, a land which is chronically short of water.

The proper solution for this refugees is to improve life back home, so they won't be refugees. That's the UN's job; they're not doing it.

[Nigritude Ultramarine]

"Mubarak Salaa, a refugee from Darfur, told the crowd the horrifying story of his life in the village.

'We are tired of being told that we are terrorists and that we brought diseases to Israel. People say that we just came to work, and take Israel's money and go back home. That's not true," Salaa said. "I ask to be allowed to live here until there is peace in my country.'"

Casting refugees in disparaging terms to turn the local citizenry against them is not fair. It does seem familiar though. That's right, the refugees of the S.S. St. Louis:

"Goebbels had decided to use the S.S. St. Louis and her passengers in a master propaganda plan. Having sent agents to Havana to stir up anti-Semitism, Nazi propaganda fabricated and hyped the passengers' criminal nature - making them seem even more undesirable. The agents within Cuba stirred anti-Semitism and organized protests. Soon, an additional 1,000 Jewish refugees entering Cuba was seen as a threat."

The Tragedy of the S.S. St. Louis

[Jay]

The Muslims in Sudan have been committing genocide against the Christian and Animist populations. So a handful of people braved the hardships and terrors of traveling by foot for thousands of miles to try and save themselves and their children. Yet the government of Israel and apparently a handful of goons on FM refer to them as the 'drek' of the world. NO ONE suggested that Israel take in every refugee. NO ONE suggested that they were responsible for events worldwide. I would suggest, though, that you all stop and think about how you would have felt in 1942 when countries around the world were making the same derogatory statments about Jews.

[nachos]

Posted by: nobody | December 26, 2010 at 11:06 AM

Nobody:

You are obviously ignorant of what is currently going on in Africa. These people are not economic refugees like the Mexicans in the U.S.. Many of these people are running for their lives.

Do you actually beleive a ghetto is a good thing? When the U.S. economy fails under the mountain of debt we have, and the Jews are blamed, I pray that you get sent to a ghetto rather than a concentration camp.

[nobody]

"When the U.S. economy fails under the mountain of debt we have, and the Jews are blamed, I pray that you get sent to a ghetto rather than a concentration camp."

Wtf? It's the article that conflated ghettos and concentration camps, not me. Please do not curse me, I never said anything against you.

[Adam Neira]

Australia has detention facilities for arrivals who refuse to follow normal immigration protocols. These protestors must come down from their clouds and deal with reality on the ground.

[PishPosh]

Nachos you insult my murdered family with equivocal comparisons between Israels detention camps and concentration camps.
You go straight to hell and any like minded person with you.

[ruthie]

You sound just like the Swiss and other countries that turned away Jewish refugees just before and during WW2.

Since you claim to be frum, how do you get around the biblical command to treat strangers (in context, clearly refugees) with kindness?

my thoughts EXACTLY !

[ruthie]

oh people, people,
while hamas is planning to attack and kill us we should
1. welcome the africans.
2. build homes on the borders
3. give them guns (a job in effect!)
give them respect and pay them well....and we could use their help.
think people...THINK!!!!!!

[JC]

The refuge problem should be a global one, not just the problem of neighboring countries. Israel has the Africans, we have the Mexicans. All refugees should be processed and given safe havens across the caring countries of the world. Some can go to Switzerland, some to England, Canada, Portugal, Israel, Norway, Australia, US, Japan, Austria etc. The numbers can be based on the economic ability and other factors. Stay away from the UN since there is too much hot air there and nothing gets accomplished by that pathetic organization.

Ghettos are not such a bad thing. The haredim love to live in them. Just look at Boro Park, very hard to find an uglier neighborhood yet the haredi scum will pay a king’s random to live in its squalor.

[nachos]

Posted by: PishPosh | December 26, 2010 at 05:22 PM

You are offended that I continually point out thatIsrael is practicing some of the same things that Nazi Germany did. I guess you approve of the don't rent to non Jews mantra that haredi have been shouting. Was your murdered family equaly offended when Rubashkin called Iowa worse than Nazi occupied Poland? Maybe you need to start standing up so that people like your family won't be murdered in the first place.

Do you really think for a moment that us Jews will not be blamed for the financial crisis and the economic collapse of this country?

Furthermore, pish posh isn't it Jewish law that there really is no hell. Didn't some rabbi say that the most one can be in hell is somethuing like 30 days. I guess that rabbi just sprang Hitler.

Once again. the question gets asked about what to do about the biblical command about strangers. Should we no protect those in danger of losing their lives or should we turn our backs like what was done to your gfamily.

Whose position is really honoring your family, mine or yours?

How do you feel about Rubashkin comparing Iowa to Nazi occupied Poland?

[nachos]

I think their is a legitamite difference between the Africans and the Mexicans. The African's are really in the middle of a genocide. The Mexican's are not. Why hasn't the U.S. done something to stop the genocide?

At one time, Israel saved a boat load of Vietnamese people fleeing the war. They opened up restaurants in Netanya, creating jobs and paying taxes. If that boatload of people had come today, they might have been turned away by the haredim.

The measure that we we measure by will be used to measure us.

[yidandahalf]

nachos, The vast a difference between the Africans/Mexicans and the Vietnamese; the latter are Confucianists.

[nachos]

Vietnamese; the latter are Confucianists.

Posted by: yidandahalf | December 26, 2010 at 06:25 PM
Don't forget they cook the Jewish national pastime!!

[Isa]

With finese {which is greatly lacking) Christians can be convinced to fight for the Israeli State sort of what the Legion Etrangre (Foreign Legion) is all about.

With Muslims, oh no they must leave

[PishPosh]

Nachos I read what you said. My father survived the camps and a British detention camp on Cyprus where the Basar Lavan, the white meat when you could get it barked and fetched rather then squealed and oinked.
But even he didnt have the moral corruption like you to tell me that he half expected the British to then build ovens for him in case entry to Israel was not upcoming.
Olim also went to absorbtion centers which served as areas to acclimate and learn about their Old/New home.
I would like these refugees to made welcome, not just to be thrown into the street to make do, but have a home run like the old Ole detention centers where they can learn Hebrew and maybe even skills. And can count of decent food and shelter till they learn a little bit more about the culture in Israel. Many of these refugees are Christian and I would like to throw it at the Churches in Israel and ask them to help as well. There are a lot of good Chrisitan relgious men in Jerusalem if you would look for them and I have no doubt they would jump at the chance to help coreligonists, if they havent already.
And dont ask me about Rabbis. I count myself a Karaite and piss on the whole lot of these self appointed cretins.
Besides detention centers properly supervised would take the worry from people like you who protest a lot but have yet to make any effort of adopting them into your homes. You leftist are always the first to protest and the last to take any initiative on your own.

They came to Israel because they knew that to go to an Arab country would mean eiter conversion or death, death for maybe being the wrong type of Muslim or re-expulsion to the road. Im proud that they think of Israel as someplace they can feel safe in a cruel world. The detention center like the Mercaz Olim need only be a temporary stop. Your knee jerk reactions only tell me that you want to gripe about something but you but wont invite these people into your homes.
Since you want to talk about Judaism, I do know that Judaism is not about leasing your duties out to the Govt. Thats why we need to speak up about pigs like Rubashkin and these other Rabbis and not count on the Govt to censure them. I would have been greater glorification of Gods name to have put Rubashkin out of business on our own thru community pressure instead of just finding something illegal for the Govt to throw at him. As long as I see so many idiots with their Rubashathons, then we have failed.
A Rabbi who finds his Yeshiva surrounded by Jews angry shaking their fists and holding club, at his stupid deplorable remarks will be more inclined to shut up and take heed and warning then to get the Govt to declare something illegal and then he continues while his lawyers fight against the laws. I want the people of Israel to do things and not leave it to the Govt bureaucracy.
You don't want them in Detention centers, then invite them into your homes, Kibbutzim, Moshavim. Give them a chance to absorb their new situation over an extended period. Give them keys to your home and then say "Come and go as you please, I trust you" Their is your loving kindness. But you wont will you? Like all liberals you want the nanny state of Israel to take care of all of it. Why dont you give it a chance before wasting the limited breath God gave you on anti Govt hate speech and assumptions of things not in evidence.

[uncle joe mccarthy]

shmaria,

you are starting to sound like richard silverstein and phillip weiss.

these are not concentration camps or ghettos

but maybe they should do what egypt or mexico does to their illegals...shoot them.

[nachos]

Pish Posh:

I find it rather funny that you refer to me as a liberal. Nothing can be farther from the truth. I am very conservative. In fact, I am so conservative that I voted to the right of the Republicans this election cycle.

My father fought in the 48 war and my uncle helped blow up a ship of Jews in Haifa that was being returned to Germany. My uncle also switched clothes with refugees coming ashore to confuse the British. My other Uncle joined an RAF unit in Palestine to steal arms. However, the British were smarter and shipped him off to Tripoli.

Please don't even imply that I am just happy making others pull the sweight I should be pulling. Frequently, we have had homeless people live with us for extended periods of time. I don't beleive in giving to an organization. I beleive we should help each other face to face.

My home is an open house to anyone that needs a place to sleep or food. Like you, I have also adopted a Karaite way of life. I have been forced to. The Jews of Postville are not happy that I will not do the o poor Shalom bit. Thus, I am totally isolated from any Jewish community. When I die, I will be buried in a gentile cemetary as a result.

I beleive that Shalom could be out of jail tommorrow and restored, if he would just admit what he has done and repent. This is all happening to him because G-d is allowing it to happen. Shalom needs to stop pissing off G-D. I have told this to Shalom directly and anyone that would listen to the point where I am no longer a part of the community. However, I feel good that I have done the right thing.

I think we can both agree that asylum should be given to anyone if their life is legitamately at risk. Economics is not a reason for asylum. Escaping genocide is a legitimate reason for the Jewish state to give asylum. If you don't agree, then you want Israel to be just like Switzerland. This isn't a left or right question, but a moral imperitive that brings into question one of the missions that G-d gave us. G-d wants us to be a light to the gentiles. How can Israel be the light if we send these people back to Darfur to die.

[Bilaam's Ass]

WOE TO AM YISRAEL - RABBIS SCREAM ABOUT CHRISTMAS LAMPS AND WELFARE WHILE WITH REFUGEES ARE SILENT - THIS IS their TORAH TRUE JUDAISM - AS A RABBI I AM ASHAMED AND ONLY A BIT LESS AS A MASORTI CONSERVATIVE RABBI- WOE TO US - HASHEM PLEASE FORGIVE US

[FrumButSentient]

Shmayra -

Since you quote chumash I'll quote Shas - Hillel specifically. Dont do you your neighbor what you wouldn't want done to you.

Well, ** I ** would not like to be in a concentation camp. ** I ** would not like to be brutalized, raped, intimidated, or demeaned.

** I ** would dislike being chased out of a country - but I would like the previous things even less.

** I ** dont like it when people dont like me - but I like it even less when they take advantage of me rather than turn me away.

There is no way that such a small country can absorb so much of disintegrating civilizations, especially when the other 99% of the world that hates us stands idly by.

As the injuction to physicians goes: "primum non nocere" FIRST do no harm - then - and only then - if you can promise, and swear that to the best of your ability you will do no harm - THEN and ONLY THEN - can you attempt to do some good.

WE CANNOT PROMISE TO DO NO HARM TO THESE PEOPLE BY ACCEPTING THEM, NOR CAN WE PROMISE ISRAELIS (and AMERICANS) THAT WE CAN DO NO HARM TO LEGAL RESIDENTS OF THOSE COUNTRIES BY ACCEPTING THEM. Since we CAN promise that BAD things will happen to them - like the aforementioned detention camps - then they should not be accepted, and should be deported.

Again - DIN as CHESED - get straight!

[Shmarya]

Posted by: FrumButSentient | December 27, 2010 at 11:20 AM

You turned black into white and white into black. What you have done is appalling. You have trashed biblical commandments.

[Yoel Mechanic]

These people should be granted asylum, all of them. And recognize this is part of the Jewish sovereignty over the whole area, including Yesha. Don't then turn around and expect the same Jews who are running things to trade away our ancestral homeland to those hostile to the state (or even those who are not hostile to the state).