Last update - 00:00 26/04/2007
Foreign Ministry looking to increase aid for Darfur refugees
By Barak Ravid and Mijal Grinberg, Haaretz Correspondents
The Foreign Ministry is currently considering increasing Israel's humanitarian assistance to refugees from the Darfur region of Sudan.
Foreign Ministry Director General Aharon Abramovitch has instructed several ministry divisions to work together to present an action plan on the matter as soon as possible.
To date, Israel has provided relatively limited assistance to the survivors of the Darfur genocide currently in refugee camps in Africa.
The Foreign Ministry faces two problems: First, any public Israeli statement or assistance could serve the Sudanese government in convincing the Arab world to stand by its side. Sudan's government has already said there is a "Zionist-American conspiracy" to divert attention from
the "crimes in Palestine" to the situation in Darfur. Second, Israel does not have diplomatic relations with Chad, which is hosting the highest concentration of refugees.
Foreign Ministry officials say that due to these reasons, Israel has thus far taken only "low-profile" steps and has tried to blur the appearance of official involvement.
Israel's primary involvement has been in cooperation with the United Nations refugee agency UNHCR. In the last three years, the Foreign Ministry has transfered some $100,000 to the UN to purchase equipment and food for the refugees. Israel has also worked with the UN and other groups to help organizations that are having trouble transferring aid to Darfur refugees in various African states.
One proposal the ministry began implementing several months ago is to try to establish, with UNHCR help, an Israeli clinic for the refugees in a country neighboring Sudan that has relations with Israel.
Nonetheless, limited resources remain a serious problem. Assistance to Darfur refugees has been raised twice in cabinet meetings once by former foreign minister Silvan Shalom, and once by Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni. Livni even mentioned the issue during a speech to the UN General Assembly in September of last year, saying, "We cannot stand by while such horrors
occur."
Despite the plan currently being formulated by the Foreign Ministry, it appears that any significant step will require government approval and the appropriation of the necessary funds.
Meanwhile, some 40 African refugees, mostly from Sudan, have entered Israel illegally in the past two weeks. They were apprehended by the Israel Defense Forces, and are currently being held at a military base in southern Israel, as no government agency is willing to take responsibility for them. The IDF has requested assistance from both the Prisons Service and the Immigration Police on the matter, but an Immigration Police official told Haaretz that the army must deal with the refugees because it has the authority to deport them. Attorney General Menachem Mazuz ruled roughly one year ago that the IDF could deport illegal immigrants immediately after they enter the country.