Video: Tel Aviv – A Day In The Life Of A Sudanese Refugee

He sleeps in a park with other refugees. He has no job, no food and no shoes. He is hungry and afraid. The government demands huge fines from employers who hire these people. The High Court stayed that law but employers are still afraid the government will punish them if they hire African refugees. The government wants to keep African refugees in a detention center but hasn't managed to finish preparing it, even though it has been working on it for months and it won't be much more than a tent city once it is finished. On the day the world commemorates as Holocaust Remembrance Day, here's a video portrait of a day in the life of a Sudanese refugee asylum-seeker who thought Jews or all people would help him.

 

Watch the video on Ha'aretz.com.

Comments

[B]

The world is full of people whose countries are worse to live in than Israel (due mostly to the values and abilities of their populations.) They are locked into a Malthusian struggle for survival fought with their procreative organs and AK-47s, and the losers must go somewhere. Sudan has a 30 million-strong population. If half of them are allowed to move to Israel, Israel will become immediately indistinguishable from Sudan. Like a typical liberal, you are making a self-righteous condemnation and implicitly demanding that other people bear the costs of your moralizing. Why don't you buy these poor refugees airplane tickets and host them in your Minnesota home?

[Malka Gittel]

And B, what is your suggestion--shall we lock the gates of the Sudan? What do we do about those who have left?

Are you willing to have any Sudanese in YOUR neighborhood?

Complaining about others' solutions or suggestions is wonderful, as long as you have something to contribute yourself.

[B]

I think deporting the Sudanese who are in Israel and locking down the border would be a reasonable first step.

If I wanted to live with the Sudanese, I would move to Khartoum.

[alex]

"Rabbi Eli Hecht, a Tzedaka fundraiser from Kfar Chabad, Israel who was arrested in Spain on charges of drug trafficking, was aqquited of all charges in a Madrid court today. Rabbi Hecht will return home to his family after the completion of the paperwork process."

Questions: 1. Will this item be given the same prominence on the FM site that Shmotta gave to the announcement of Rabbi Hecht's arrest? Will Shmotta die of shame over joining the Hep Hep chorus. No question mark because it is a rhetorical question. The real question is, When?

[Isa]

Very roughly and not with any finesse

South Sudan became a separate nation because of [roughly] a Christian- Moslem power struggle with the Christians being persecuted [Does this sound familiar?] Moslems have a saying: roughly "today Saturday tomorrow Sunday"
Meaning: today we persecute the Jews and after them then we will turn our attention to Christians

If Christian: tell him that we have a common enemy. Feed him, cloth him, train him and give him a rifle etc to take back/protect his homeland

If Moslem: [which I doubt] kick him out

[Yaakov]

Malka Gittel:

Never try to teach a pig to sing—it wastes your time annoys the pig.
                                     —Robert Heinlein

[Yaakov]

An "and" went AWOL in that last comment.

[Shmarya]

Rabbi Eli Hecht, a Tzedaka fundraiser from Kfar Chabad, Israel who was arrested in Spain on charges of drug trafficking, was aqquited of all charges in a Madrid court today. Rabbi Hecht will return home to his family after the completion of the paperwork process."

Questions: 1. Will this item be given the same prominence on the FM site that Shmotta gave to the announcement of Rabbi Hecht's arrest? Will Shmotta die of shame over joining the Hep Hep chorus. No question mark because it is a rhetorical question. The real question is, When?

Posted by: alex | January 27, 2012 at 03:03 PM

Idiot.

Reporting the arrest and the charges against Hecht is exactly what should be done.

I checked your unnamed source, and all I can find on the web is those two sentences you posted. The source is CrownHeights.info.

There's one other post, equally short, on Chabad.info.

Both were posted in past 3 to 5 hours.

In the past, you have criticized me for posting information from these two blogs.

But that was when the information made Chabad look bad.

Now, when you think it makes Chabad look good, you criticize me for not posting their information – and even more nonsensically, you do that even though no other newssite or haredi sites like Matzav and VIN, have done so, either.

Typical Chabad troll.

[Jeff]

I really hate us. Our theology is a joke. The only thing I felt was worth our while to hold onto was our purported collective social conscience and the idea of "tikkun olam" - but those are gone now. The conservative hegemony of the past thirty-odd years and its accompanying materialist malaise have finished them off.

I care nothing for Israel at this point, and I'm having trouble coming up with reasons even to identify as a cultural Jew. If I felt there were any good reason to believe in a transcendent reality, I'd become a Unitarian.

[Malka Gittel]

I'm not sure Unitarians believe in a transcendent reality. I don't think it's part of the requirements. We supposedly do, but we have lovely people like B to remind us that there's a reason for the lyrics to "Carefully Taught." Which I may have to post on one of these threads in which the hatemongers barf up their bile.

[Maskil]

Most of them are good people seeking a better life (some have raped their neighbor's children). But why should a Nation of 7.5 million that has no immigration policy (and for "aliyah" follows the discrestion of Hitler rather than Judean courts) be the one to absorb them?

[B]

Malka,

I haven't heard the song. Please post those lyrics once the Sudanese refugees you've graciously put up in your apartment get off your computer, which you are so kindly letting them use.

Unitarianism is, indeed, the zeitgeist. This little light of mine, I'm gonna let it shine, etc.

[RightJew]

B,

You're absolutely correct. Israel was created as a refuge for Jews, not goyim. Jews have absolutely no halachic or ethical obligation to allow hordes of non-Jewish or black Muslim refugees to flood Israel.

Those who advocate such a suicidal policy are perfect examples of how "Liberalism is a mental disorder."

Of course the libs will call me a racist. But why don't Jewish libs ever accuse the non-white countries of racism who refused to admit Jewish holocaust refugees during WWII?

[Shmarya]

:But why don't Jewish libs ever accuse the non-white countries of racism who refused to admit Jewish holocaust refugees during WWII?:

Posted by: RightJew | January 28, 2012 at 07:41 PM

Idiot.

What "non-white" countries are you referring to?

Africa was completely colonized by "white" countries with the exception of Ethiopia, which rather famously fought a war with Italy at the beginning of WW2.

Latin America was also European-run, as was Central America. Even so, some of those countries did open their doors to Jewish refugees.

China had been attacked by Japan. You may recall it was the Japanese who let the Mir yeshiva stay in Shanghai. That's because Japan had taken over China by then.

Japan, Italy and Germany were the original Axis powers. Russia joined later and then left when Germany attacked it.

At any rate, there really weren't any independent non-white countries to speak of.

That you are an idiot, that you are an racist ignoramus, that you are a a sick disturbed little man is, from your many comments here, absolutely clear.

And you're so stupid, you don't even realize who idiotic you look.

[Confused]

I am confused. Get a bunch of them together, form a yeshiva and have them all learn in the yeshivah's kollel. Won't the government then support then? I must be missing something, sounds like a great way of using the system

As they say, What's good for the goose is good for the gander.

[RightJew]

Shmarya,

Anybody with an ounce of intelligence can see through your disingenuous liberal flimflam. During WWII there were many non-white countries not under occupation, including most of South America, some African countries, some Asian countries, etc., and yet no liberal would think to accuse them of racism for not taking in Jews. Why? Because liberals have an overtly racist double standard when it comes to judging non-white behavior.

You can try to bamboozle some of your readers, but its clear you are advocating that Israel take in black Muslim "refugees" from Sudan.

[Shmarya]

Anybody with an ounce of intelligence can see through your disingenuous liberal flimflam. During WWII there were many non-white countries not under occupation, including most of South America, some African countries, some Asian countries, etc., and yet no liberal would think to accuse them of racism for not taking in Jews. Why? Because liberals have an overtly racist double standard when it comes to judging non-white behavior.

You can try to bamboozle some of your readers, but its clear you are advocating that Israel take in black Muslim "refugees" from Sudan.

Posted by: RightJew | January 28, 2012 at 09:17 PM

Idiot.

Name them.

[Confused]

How difficult would it be for them to come here to the states. It appears that they are not entitled to outright govt help in Israel. Here one has at least welfare, food stamps, and medicaid to start with. On top of that they won't have an issue of discrimination working against them.

It wasn't quite clear if they were jewish, but if they aren't then making a home here would make more sense.

Face it, with the level of jewish poverty in Israel non-jewish causes in Israel would place low in getting a big piece of the American jewish charity dollars.

[B]

Absolutely. As we all know, America's job as a nation is to take in everyone who comes from war-torn impoverished countries (something like 3-4 billion people) and give them welfare, food stamps and medicaid. Due to the well-known magical properties of the US border (which, like tumah, have no vertical limits,) the second the refugees' planes cross it, they will magically transform into Americans with all the associated values and behaviors, thereby avoiding the unfortunate scenario where they turn their new home into an impoverished, violence-torn dump just like their old home.

Just to be safe, though, we should launch a pilot program where we only bring in as many of these charity immigrants as will fit into the homes of the advocates of charity immigration such as yourself. Once a reasonable amount of time has passed and assimilation has taken place (as judged by metrics like crime and income, as well as your personal vouching,) we can release them upon the general population and bring in the next batch-repeat until America's population is 3 billion completely assimilated ex-third world refugees. Deal?

[RightJew]

Jewish libs demonstrate their utter suicidal insanity by promoting the invasion of Israel from Sudan, a Black Muslim terror sponsoring state. Some of these so-called "refugees" are no doubt Islamic sleeper agents, waiting to be activated for suicide missions against innocent Jews. How many more Jews must die, chas v'shalom, before Israel can prove to the liberals its not "racist"?

"Sudan's Islamic government was found to be providing sanctuary, safe passage, military training, financial support and office space in Khartoum to officials of international terrorist and radical Islamic groups."
http://www.adl.org/presrele/terrorismintl_93/sudan_93.asp

"Sudan provide military training and support to Hizballah, Hamas, Palestinian Islamic Jihad, Egyptian Islamic Jihad, Algeria's Armed Islamic Group ... Many of the terrorist groups have some training camps in the country"
https://secure.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/wiki/Terrorism_in_Sudan

[Confused]

-repeat until America's population is 3 billion completely assimilated ex-third world refugees. Deal?

Posted by: B | January 29, 2012 at 08:58 AM

Excellent analysis, now replace in your thesis "America" with "Israel" and you will see where we stand on this hapless issue.

Please remember the revised inscription on the Statue of Liberty.

"Give meKeep your tired, your poor/Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free"

[Jeff]

Jewish libs demonstrate their utter suicidal insanity

You're right. We're completely unreachable. You shouldn't waste any more of your time on us.

[Shmarya]

Posted by: RightJew | January 29, 2012 at 09:17 AM

You falsely claimed that there were many 'non-white' countries that refused to take in Jews during the Holocaust.

I explained why you're wrong.

You responded by making the claim again and attacking me.

I asked you to provide a list of these 'non-white' countries.

Instead, you left another incendiary comment but no list of these 'non-white' countries.

You have a brief amount of time to produce the list.

If you do not, or if you do not admit your error and apologize , I will ban you and delete your comments.

[B]

Confused-

I'm not quite sure where you're going with all this.

You do know that Emily Dickinson was a poet (and not a very good one at that,) not a founding father? That she was shilling for a basically exploitative immigration policy where the European poor would be be brought to the US and used for labor, not for charity? And that even in her wildest, most Progressive moments she wouldn't have dreamed of importing millions of Subsaharan refugees who'd lost their civil war but not their Subsaharan values?

Here's a question for you. How come when Baruch Tegegne does what he can to live amongst Jews and not Africans, he is a hero, but when other Israelis do this, they are villains? Try to answer clearly and rationally, without paroxysms of rage.

[RightJew]

Attention FM Readers:

Please note how Shmarya has threatened to ban me after I posted a comment exposing Shmarya's attempt to garner sympathy for entry into Israel of so-called refugees from the Islamic terrorist state of Sudan.

No one should have any doubts anymore about Shmarya's fascist left, antisemitic, pro Muslim ideology.

FM is no more authentically Jewish than the Neturei Karta antisemitic, pro Muslim web site.

[Shmarya]

Posted by: RightJew | January 29, 2012 at 03:43 PM

No.

You made assertions that were demonstrably false.

I called you out on them and you insisted that you were correct.

So I told you to provide a list of said countries controlled by "non-whites" that would not take in Jews during the Holocaust.

Instead of that, you left two unrelated comments.

As I've pointed out many time, you don't get to lie here.

You lied, you got caught, and you weren't man enough to admit it.

And now you're banned.

[Shmarya]

Here's a question for you. How come when Baruch Tegegne does what he can to live amongst Jews and not Africans, he is a hero, but when other Israelis do this, they are villains? Try to answer clearly and rationally, without paroxysms of rage.

Posted by: B | January 29, 2012 at 12:56 PM

Idiot.

Baruch Tegegne had many non-Jewish African friends, some of whom helped save Ethiopian Jews.

His objection wasn't living among Africans – it was living without the security a minority community needs, and it was being in exile when he could be home in Israel, a choice all other Jews across the world except for the Jews in the Soviet Union, Syria and Iran could make and act on.

The Jews in the Soviet Union, Syria and Iran couldn't get to Israel because the rulers of those countries would not let them leave.

The same was true for Ethiopian Jews but with one added layer – Israel wouldn't let them in, either.

Why?

Because a lot of government leaders did not want to live among black Africans – even if they were Jews.

Past all that, the Torah – a document you clearly do not follow – mandates that we help strangers, and the language it uses and context clearly refers to refugees.

And the language you use to justify not helping these refugees is the same language the leaders of Egypt used when they chose to enslave our ancestors – an act the Torah strongly condemns, as you surely must know.

And nowhere does the Torah say that you must help these refugees who come to you for help only if it is easy.

[B]

You think that when these Sudanese are given their own neighborhoods in Israel, they won't treat the Jews living as minorities like the Ethiopians treated the Jews living among them? What, the magical air of Eretz Israel will suffuse their souls with tolerance and first world values? I can tell you've never had the magical experience of being a white kid in an inner city American school.

Let me repeat myself: the Israelis do not wish to live among the Sudanese for the same reason that the Ethiopian Jews did not want to live among the Ethiopians, regardless of how many of them are individually perfectly nice people. You are being intentionally obtuse because, like the typical American Progressive, you instinctively side with the Exotic Other against the wrong kind of your kin. Though hypocritical, this is a very advantageous intraspecies competition tactic; we can see its long-term outcome in places like Detroit which have been ethnically cleansed of the wrong kind of white people and become bastions of the Progressive vote.

The Egyptians enslaved our ancestors who had been living among them in obedience to the law and contributing to their economy and physical survival. I have no doubts as to what contributions a sizeable number of these refugees would make to Israel. You live in Minnesota, so you have no shortage of their Somali analogues to refer to for an example.

[PrettyBoyFloyd]

I wonder how many black Muslims, (or even Ethiopians) Shmarya would invite into his house, in good old white St. Paul?

[Steven]

Its sad to watch these people struggle but how do we know that these sudanese are not interested in waging war against the jews. If you check out this video, it would suggest that Israel needs to keep better tabs of its borders.

http://www.memritv.org/clip/en/3118.htm

[Betzalel]

Put the Sudanese before a beis din, ask them if they want to accept the Noachide laws and become ger toshavim. If so, than the Jews have an obligation to look after them as they are our brothers and they can stay in Israel.

But if not, then ship them back to Sudan.

It's the simple Torah solution.

[Shmarya]

…The Egyptians enslaved our ancestors who had been living among them in obedience to the law and contributing to their economy and physical survival. I have no doubts as to what contributions a sizeable number of these refugees would make to Israel. You live in Minnesota, so you have no shortage of their Somali analogues to refer to for an example.

Posted by: B | January 29, 2012 at 04:54 PM

Yes, rocket scientist, the Egyptians did wait many years before enslaving us.

What did they do before that?

They took us in as refugees, gave us food and places to live, and allowed us to live for what, more than 2 centuries before turning against us?

And the Torah and its commentaries say what about that behavior?

It condemns the Egyptians' later bad behavior but praises their earlier good behavior, and then it goes on to repeatedly order us to care for the stranger who comes to us for help.

[Shmarya]

You live in Minnesota, so you have no shortage of their Somali analogues to refer to for an example.

Posted by: B | January 29, 2012 at 04:54 PM

I have many Ethiopian and Sudanese neighbors.

[Shmarya]

Put the Sudanese before a beis din, ask them if they want to accept the Noachide laws and become ger toshavim. If so, than the Jews have an obligation to look after them as they are our brothers and they can stay in Israel.

But if not, then ship them back to Sudan.

It's the simple Torah solution.

Posted by: Betzalel | January 29, 2012 at 08:02 PM

Actually, it isn't that simple for many reasons.

The key reason is that sending them back means they'll probably die or be murdered, and your Chabad teachers may not have told you this but halakha really wouldn't allow that.

Even more importantly, what would you think about a country – let's say China, as an example that did not actually happen – that sent Jewish refugees from Nazi Germany back to Germany and to their deaths because the Jews would not accept the precepts of Buddhism?

What do you think the world should think of China then?

Oh. That's right. You don't actually think, do you?

[B]

Genius: apparently, you view your Somali neighbors with rosy glasses. Perhaps the fact that they don't live in your house lets you ignore the obvious: http://tinyurl.com/6rbnmd6

You still have not answered my underlying question. Is Israel obliged to provide refuge and resettlement to anybody that can walk there? If so, what should they do when a hundred million third worlders show up? You do understand that the Eurasian landmass was settled by humans walking tens of thousands of miles, that their descendants can repeat this feat, and that enough people live in such bad conditions in Africa and West Asia that they may well be willing to do so provided there's a good chance of social benefits waiting for them?

As far as halakhic obligation-you would have to prove that this obligation extended to all comers (the example of Yael and Sisera would be your first obstacle.) Then you would have to prove that it was a governmental obligation, not just a personal one.

[Shmarya]

Is Israel obliged to provide refuge and resettlement to anybody that can walk there? If so, what should they do when a hundred million third worlders show up? You do understand that the Eurasian landmass was settled by humans walking tens of thousands of miles, that their descendants can repeat this feat, and that enough people live in such bad conditions in Africa and West Asia that they may well be willing to do so provided there's a good chance of social benefits waiting for them?

As far as halakhic obligation-you would have to prove that this obligation extended to all comers (the example of Yael and Sisera would be your first obstacle.) Then you would have to prove that it was a governmental obligation, not just a personal one.

Posted by: B | January 29, 2012 at 08:55 PM

Please.

Do you think Israel should send these people back to die? Do you think what may happen in the future justifies that?

If so, every country that refused to take in Jewish refugees from Nazi Germany or countries Germany was in the process of occupying because they feared some of the Jews were really German spies or that Jews would "take over" their lovely non-Jewish countries was justified.

These people are almost all fleeing from direct Arab persecution or from the economic collapse that persecution caused.

But even that is not enough for you.

If you can act the way you do 67 years after the Holocaust, I shudder to think what your grandchildren will be like.

[B]

That's right, don't answer my question. Better not to think about these things. Nazi analogy squid ink thrusters engage!

[Shmarya]

That's right, don't answer my question. Better not to think about these things. Nazi analogy squid ink thrusters engage!

Posted by: B | January 29, 2012 at 10:39 PM

I answered your question.

But you, as usual, haven't answered any question.

Do you think sending these people back to an almost certain death is warranted to protect what you see as the future negative impact to the Jewish state caused by helping them?

That's the question.

Now answer it.

[B]

You have answered nothing. Again: how many African refugees does Israel, according to you, have an obligation to accommodate? Is the number finite, or infinite? If the former, what should they do when the N+1st refugee shows up?