Eritrean refugees trapped on Israel-Egypt border for 7 days

[PalestineMyHeart 1,897]

A group of twenty people who fled the horrors of Eritrea was being prevented from crossing the fence to Israel at gunpoint. The army also prevented doctors and volunteers from supplying the refugees with food and medicine.

As I write these words, the IDF is preventing a group of senior Israeli doctors – members of Physicians for Human Rights – from reaching some 20 Eritreans trapped between the Israeli and Egyptian borders. The African asylum seekers, among them a 14-year-old, have been there for a week now. Early reports quoted an army order to give them “as little water as possible” and no food.

The heat in this desert area reaches approximately 100 degrees (38 degrees Celsius) every day. On Wednesday evening, the army announced it would give the refugees some food as well, but a commander at the scene told the physicians this afternoon that no food has been delivered so far. The army has declared the entire area “a closed military zone” and has been holding back protesters and activists who have tried to come near the fence with food and water. It seems that the only hope the Eritreans have is a looming PR disaster for the army, as the international media is gradually discovering the story.

Israel wants the refugees to turn back. They will not. They have traveled an incredibly long way in their exodus, crossing Sudan and Egypt, two of the most dangerous places on earth right now. The last leg of their journey was the worst, considering the extensive reports of organized rape, torture, robbing and murder of refugees in the Sinai Peninsula. It is clear why the Eritreans would rather starve to death at the gates of the promised land than head back.

Prison awaits the asylum seekers on the other side of the border, and a detention camp built to hold 15,000 souls will soon be populated by people who have committed no crime. Interior Minister Eli Yishai (Shas) has announced that in the next month – right after Yom Kippur and the Jewish High Holidays – the police will begin rounding up Sudanese and Eritreans in order to send them to this desert prison for an indefinite period of time. Even this terrible fate is denied to the group stranded on the other side of the fence.

Most Eritreans are recognized by the world as refugees (the reason why Israel is prevented from deporting them). If it weren’t for the immediate dangers to their lives, I do not think that many of them would have risked the horrors of the journey to our border. Yet the Jewish state sends soldiers to hold them at gunpoint and prevent volunteers from reaching them with food and medicine. The public discourse is unbearable, and talks of the crime and diseases the refugees bring are now mainstream.

During a Supreme Court hearing Thursday morning, the state admitted that the Eritreans stranded at the border are officially a few meters into Israeli territory. However, the court has decided to delay the hearing to Sunday, most likely in order to give the state some time to resolve the issue. That way, no one can argue that Israel has already assumed legal responsibility for the asylum seekers. However, such technicalities should not be at the heart of the matter.

Immigration along with waves of refugees are part of the flow of history. Every country faces them at one point or another. Refugees are never liked nor welcomed – such moments present a test to national character, as Jewish history has demonstrated all too well.

It is not an impossible challenge. Even if the number of Africans in Israel was to double or triple itself, they wouldn’t come close to the previous waves of immigration that this county has known and welcomed. The problem is not that the Africans are too big of a burden on the state. It is that they are not Jews. Israel has become a place with an absolute disdain for any universalist consideration, led by parties who hold a vision of an ethnically-pure nation.

Naturally, a county has the right to decide who will enter it or become a citizen. Yet moral values should play a part in such decisions. Faced with a human rights catastrophe to its south, Israel could have turned to the world for help. It could have invited the UN or the Red Cross to construct refugee camps, or come up with any other policy that isn’t just about building fences and prisons, or taking pride in the fact that “we are going to make their life miserable,” as Interior Minister Yishai recently stated. But this country has turned its back on the world and all its suffering, absorbing itself in the lowest form of European-style nationalism (and occasionally, racism).

My heart goes out not only to the refugees, but also to the 19-year-old fools guarding the fence, actually believing that they are performing some heroic – albeit “morally complicated” – mission. The historical irony is indeed gut-wrenching.

UPDATE: Around 6:30 P.M., it was made known that two women along with the 14-year-old boy will be allowed into Israel to receive medical treatment. The rest of the asylum seekers will be left on the Egyptian side of the fence. Prime Minister Netanyahu has confirmed that three of the “infiltrators” will be let in, while the rest will turn back. According to initial reports, the rest of the group has been handed to the Egyptian army. ”Israel is not a destination for infiltrators,” Netanyahu said.

http://972mag.com/turning-ones-back-on-the-world-and-all-its-suffering/55297/

[I AM NOT THAT GUY 5,715]

Terrible and just wrong!

[PalestineMyHeart 1,897]

Sister Aziza from Physicians for Human Rights tries to convince Israeli border police to allow a delegation of doctors to enter the zone where African refugees are being held on Israel's southern border, September 6, 2012 (photo: SGActivestills.org)

Sister Aziza from Physicians for Human Rights is turned away by the army and police from the zone where African refugees are being held on Israel’s southern border, September 6, 2012 (photo: SGActivestills.org)

[NINA80 9]

well they are clair about it it. Israel is a democracy for Jews.... means for jews only....it's in their constitution. it's sad

[PalestineMyHeart 1,897]

well they are clair about it it. Israel is a democracy for Jews.... means for jews only....it's in their constitution. it's sad

Well, actually, Israel does not have a constitution. According to Israel's "Proclamation of Independence" in 1948, it was supposed to create one within months of establishment of the State, but various Israeli factions could never come to an agreement on it. Religious parties insisted that the Torah was already the constitution, seculars opposed that, socialists and communists had their own ideas, etc.

So the Israeli Knesset came up with a compromise solution which is something called the Basic Laws, which have gone through a number of revisions over the last 6 decades. In some ways, these laws (along with other laws passed from time to time and interpretations of the Israeli Supreme Court) serve as a sort of a constitution. But there is no "supreme law" which can be used to strike down laws and regulations that contradict it.

The Proclamation of Independence stated that Israel would be a democracy with equal rights for all citizens. However, in practice, the Knesset and the Israeli Supreme Court have created a legal system which does not enforce equal rights for ethnic and religious minorities, which make up at least 20% of Israel's population.

The current political atmosphere inside Israel has reached the point of hysteria over the ethnic balance of Israel, and what government officials have publicly called the "demographic threat" of non-Jews.

[PalestineMyHeart 1,897]

An Israeli soldier checks on African immigrants behind the newly-built fence at Israel-Egypt border, after they arrived a week earlier at the spot and got trapped between the old and new fences, Thursday.

Ahikam Seri/AP

Israeli soldiers stand guard as African refugees sit on the ground behind a border fence after they attempted to cross from Egypt into Israel. Photograph: Ariel Schalit/AP

Eritrean migrants stranded at Israel's border with Egypt on Thursday

AP

The Eritreans have been stuck in an area between the Egyptian and Israeli border fences for over a week

Israel's High Court has failed to reach a decision after an initial session on an urgent appeal on behalf of 20 Eritrean nationals stranded in no-man's land for a week on the border with Egypt.

Menahem Kahana - AFP

[PalestineMyHeart 1,897]

Eritrean migrants tell of IDF violence at Israel-Egypt border

Testimonies suggest that the men who had been trapped at the Israeli-Egyptian border for 8 days were tear gassed, forcefully dragged into Egyptian territory.

For the first time since they were allowed into Israel, the three Eritrean migrants who were held at the border with Egypt along with 18 others for over a week, served affidavits claiming that the IDF used physical force as well as tear gas against the migrants.

The two women and one 14-year-old boy were sent to Saharonim Prison in the Negev after being allowed to enter the country.

The three delivered testimonies to attorneys Amar Shatz and Yiftah Cohen from the We Are Refugees organization, which contradicted the previous statement released by the Prime Minister’s Office as well as the state’s response to the High Court, according to which the group of 18 Eritreans “returned to where they came,” suggesting that they returned to Egypt out of their own volition.

From the third affidavit, which was given separately, it was revealed that Israeli security forces which crossed the fence into the Egyptian side “used force, held them physically and pushed them onto a tarp which was dragged over to the Egyptian side.”

The three told the lawyers that “some of the men had fainted, that everyone was starving and that they tried helplessly to resist while pleading and yelling to be killed rather than being sent back to Egypt.” According to the affidavits, the IDF used tear gas against the Eritreans.

We Are Refugees has called for an investigation “regarding the state’s alleged actions and its public statements, namely to shed light fate on those who are missing.”

The IDF Spokesperson Unit has yet to issue a response.

The Prime Minister’s Office refused to respond to Haaretz’s probe over the nature of its previous statement, which hinted that the migrants returned to Egypt on their own accord.

The PMO also refused to respond to the question of whether it is in contact with Egyptian officials who promise the ensure the safety of the migrants, or whether it was promised that they would not be sent back to Eritrea before having their asylum seeker status checked beforehand. Moreover, the PMO did not respond when asked whether its personnel know the whereabouts of the 18 Eritreans that were sent back to Egypt.

According to international law, should Israel decides to not grant asylum to the migrants, it must arrive at an agreement with Egypt, which would ensure that they will allow them the opportunity to be absorbed by the state, and will not be deported back to their home country.

http://www.haaretz.com/news/diplomacy-defense/eritrean-migrants-tell-of-idf-violence-at-israel-egypt-border-1.464325