Jail All African Refugees, Haredi Interior Minister Says
"They've painted us as if, heaven forbid, [we were creating] refugee
camps," Interior Minister Eli Yishai complained yesterday. "The facilities are almost finished
and now I'm in a battle with the human rights organizations and the
[state’s] prosecution. I don't agree that it's impossible to return
[people] to Eritrea and northern Sudan, and if I did accept this there
would be hundreds of thousands more.…"
African refugees protest in Israel
Jail All African Refugees, Haredi Interior Minister Says
Shmarya Rosenberg • FailedMessiah.com
"After we've put them in the detention facilities they'll prefer to leave. There will be a detention facility and they will be returned to their own countries and to other countries, if we are determined and we recognize that the State of Israel is in existential danger because of this problem. Then everything will be different. With God's help, it will be possible to continue this national mission and return every last infiltrator and migrant worker to their own countries," Interior Minister Eli Yishai said yesterday at a conference at Tel Aviv University's Institute for National Security Studies, Ha’aretz reported.
Despite Yishai’s draconian desires, the Justice Ministry recently stated in court that the government never adopted a policy like Yishai’s and will not permit the implementation of one.
"They've painted us as if, heaven forbid, [we were creating] refugee camps," Yishai complained yesterday. "The facilities are almost finished and now I'm in a battle with the human rights organizations and the [state’s] prosecution. I don't agree that it's impossible to return [people] to Eritrea and northern Sudan, and if I did accept this there would be hundreds of thousands more. Just as it's possible to deport to South Sudan, it's possible to deport to northern Sudan," he said. "If there's a war there [in South Sudan], there's also one there [in Sudan], and if there isn't [a war in South Sudan], then there isn't [in Sudan]. Why is Eritrea out, but South Sudan is okay?"
International law and treaties signed by Israel prohibit the deportation of refugees from unstable war zones and to countries in which they would likely be imprisoned, tortured or killed. Northern Sudan and Eritrea are among those countries.
Israel grants these refugees exemption from deportation but refuses to evaluate their individual requests for asylum – itself a violation of international law and treaties Israel signed.
Israel does nothing to help them survive in Israel, forcing many to sleep in parks and on beaches or in dangerously overcrowded flop houses with other in-limbo refugees.
African refugees often work at menial jobs, are paid in cash at below minimum wage, and are frequently cheated and exploited by their employers.
Despite the clear danger to many of these refugees deportation would pose, Yishai vehemently attacked the government’s decision to even partially abide by the treaties it signed and to follow international law by extending blanket protection to all refugees from Eritrea and Sudan – euphemistically called migrants by people like Yishai who want to deport them – who make up more than 80 percent of all refugees entering Israel.
Yishai also attacked fellow cabinet ministers, who he said “want to pose as bleeding hearts to look good for the media. I had to choose between [that and] being good for the State of Israel, so I came out bad in the media,” Yishai reportedly said.
Former Military Advocate General Avishai Mendelblit also spoke at the conference. Mendelblit attacked Israel's policy of granting group protection from deportation to refugees from Eritrea and Sudan. Because of it, the government does not examine their refugees’ individual asylum requests.
"If you don't check the status of these people and just tell them all 'no' in advance, then of course they'll come to you with complaints, and rightly, because you have to check first [before denying them],” Mendelblit said, noting that Israel is violating its commitments under international law and under the treaties it signed by not evaluating each refugee’s request for asylum.
They really have to do something with the migrants so they would not end up like Greece.
Posted by: Bassy the Haredi Slayer | October 30, 2012 at 12:29 PM
Instead of treating these refugees like animals, why not get a translater to help send a clear inauspicious message: "israel is not your friend, stay away! Or you will be locked away indefinately in our jails. Again, we are not your friend!" send a clear message!
Posted by: anchell | October 30, 2012 at 12:56 PM
And don't even think of letting the SS St Louis on our shores!
Posted by: maven | October 30, 2012 at 01:04 PM
Deport everybody who refuses to work, Jew and Gentile alike.
Posted by: Yochanan Lavie | October 30, 2012 at 01:13 PM
@Yochanan Lavie
Deporting a Jew who refuses to work, I would of never thought is was possible.
Posted by: Realist Jew | October 30, 2012 at 01:16 PM
euphemistically called migrants by people like Yishai
Only this blog calls them refugees but the rest of the world including the New York Times, Christian Science Monitor, BBC, Washington Post and others call them migrants.
crackdown-on-african-immigrants-tugs-at-israels-soul
http://www.nytimes.com/2012/06/18/world/middleeast/crackdown-on-african-immigrants-tugs-at-israels-soul.html?pagewanted=all&_r=0
Israel-faces-off-with-African-migrants-on-Egyptian-border
http://m.csmonitor.com/World/Middle-East/2012/0906/Israel-faces-off-with-African-migrants-on-Egyptian-border
Israel urged to admit African migrants on Egypt bordert
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-middle-east-19503736
in-israel-african-migrants-face-backlash
http://www.washingtonpost.com/world/africa/in-israel-african-migrants-face-backlash/2012/06/23/gJQAwLSvxV_story.html
Posted by: Bassy the Haredi Slayer | October 30, 2012 at 02:08 PM
Why do you suppose that is?
Posted by: dh | October 30, 2012 at 02:46 PM
Whilst no Arab country is likely to accept refugees in any significant numbers, I suspect Egypt is allowing a lot of these refugees through to Israel in order to create an economic burder for Israel. As if the Charedim were not enough of a burden already!
Posted by: David | October 30, 2012 at 04:56 PM
how bad the arabs are towards the african refugees, is besides the point.
the problem is that there are 100's of millions of africans that would be better off in israel i allowed.
I say "hypothetically" because there is no parnassa for all of them in addition to the jews, the arabs etc...
an even bigger problem is that we cannot be charitable to them while our eyes are totally closed to the wrongs towards the palestinians with whom we are sharing the land.
Posted by: Yosef ben Matitya | October 30, 2012 at 06:26 PM
dh:
Why do you suppose that is?
Posted by: dh | October 30, 2012 at 02:46 PM
because we now live in era where truth does not necessarily equate with the facts.
Posted by: anchell | October 30, 2012 at 06:36 PM
Minister of Interior of eligibly democratic country (Israel) says that he is IN BUTTLE WITH HUMAN RIGHTS (organizations) and even with the State Attorney General Office (Paraklitut-mistranslated as “persecution”)! And that he does not agree with International Law! I think he would be more in place as head of NKVD or Gestapo.
Posted by: Russian PhD | October 30, 2012 at 07:04 PM
Weberman trial on for Wed. Courts are open. http://frumfollies.wordpress.com/2012/10/30/court-will-be-open-wed-oct-31-for-start-of-weberman-trial-with-jury-selection/
Posted by: Yerachmiel Lopin | October 30, 2012 at 07:40 PM
Don't even think of letting the SS st Louis on our shores... A stupid and unfair attempt to compare two different eras and equate a struggling state the size of new jersey on a constant war footing with the monolith that was U.S.A. Israel has already properly and honorably fulfilled its moral imperative on right to return with Ethiopian Jews.
Posted by: zionist goy | October 30, 2012 at 07:42 PM
anchell @ 6:36
I am trying to figure out what you said but by the time I get to the end of that sentence I have forgotten the beginning. Huh?
Posted by: dh | October 30, 2012 at 07:49 PM
Jail All African Refugees, Haredi Interior Minister Says
Send them here, they can help in the Sandy cleanup effort then integrated into American society.
Posted by: Ted | October 30, 2012 at 07:52 PM
For a person to be able to claim asylum he must show that he was being persecuted in the last country he passed through (unless he could not do so because for example people smugglers would not allow him to to report to the authorities in that country).
So the 288 passengers of the SS St Louis who were given asylum in England in July 1939 would have no right to seek asylum in the US in December 1940 because conditions in blitzed London were far worse then in New York City.
Egypt does not persecute Sudanese and admits refugees. The fact that Egypt is poor does no more entitle these refugees to move on to Israel than it does a poor Egyptian national.
Israel can not deport anyone to Egypt if Egypt refuses to accept deportees and these detention centers are a waste of resources without obtaining Egypts agreement to take back their refugees. However it has every right to secure it borders so that people who are not persecuted in Egypt find it impossible to leave Egypt and get into Israel.
It is a harsh reality that nothing will undermine the status of refugees more than its misuse for economic migration.
Posted by: Barry | October 31, 2012 at 06:38 AM
Dear Confucius,
I am not homophobe, but I am not into men that show interest in my ass. I am sorry. If you are in NYC area, go to Harlem. You will find a lot of homeless men with huge sausages that will make your happy in return of price of hamburger.
Posted by: Russian PhD | October 31, 2012 at 08:05 AM
I am trying to figure out what you said but by the time I get to the end of that sentence I have forgotten the beginning. Huh?
Posted by: dh | October 30, 2012 at 07:49 PM
perhaps you should give up drinking and, if you don't drink it might be a good time to start!
Posted by: anchell | October 31, 2012 at 12:15 PM
Russian PHDouchebag,
I just saw a story on the news about homeless guys with big shvantzes that got std's after hooking up with a Russian douchebag who had a PHD. What a coincidence.
Posted by: confucius | October 31, 2012 at 12:18 PM
anchell, lol. Great advice. Seriously. Had a tooth yanked out today. I vaguely remember them saying either don't drink while you're taking the pain pills or do drink.
Posted by: dh | October 31, 2012 at 05:22 PM