The first moral commandment of the state of the Jews is that it does not have the right to slam the door in the face of refugees fleeing genocide. A state of survivors cannot imprison those saved from the ravages of war in Sudan, the few hundred who arrived at Israel's borders with the last remains of their strength and requested refuge. Although dozens of scholarly articles have been written on the question of "What is a Jewish state," it appears that there are only a few that examine this aspect, the most important of all.

We have had enough of the excuses of ministers, judges, clerks and officers, the quotes from sections of the law against illegal entry that allow for the arrest or deportation of a Sudanese woman with a sick 4-year-old boy who crossed the desert with nothing but the torn clothing on their backs, and were tossed back to Egypt or into jail despite their pleas. There are some who were shot at because they were suspected of being terrorists, even though they didn't have weapons or even a suspicious backpack in which weapons could have been stored. Others were sent to jail, where human rights organizations happened to discover them.

In a debate initiated by MK Avshalom Vilan (Meretz-Yachad) in the Knesset Interior and Environment Committee, MK Sara Marom Shalev (Pensioners) said that the stories she heard from the Darfur refugees who spoke to Knesset members reminded her of the history of her own family and friends from Romania. Even the few Jews who managed to flee Europe were rejected by countries around the world, with various excuses. Then, too, there were laws and rationales. Holocaust scholar Prof. Yehuda Bauer noted that German Jews were arrested in England on suspicion of being spies. They, too, arrived from an enemy country, as Israel is now classifying Sudan. The United States also shut its doors to Jewish refugees.

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The state of the Jews, which was established as a land of refuge, does not have the moral right not to absorb refugees fleeing genocide. It can filter out migrant workers and it can give preference to Jewish immigration over any other kind, but Israel cannot turn the other way when persecuted refugees arrive at its border, after barely surviving a blood-drenched war that is taking place right now and has already caused the deaths of more than 400,000 people. The classification of Sudan as an enemy state is formalistic and evasive. The Sudanese government is also the enemy of the Darfur refugees.

Daniel Solomon, the legal adviser of the Interior Ministry, and Yossi Edelstein, who is responsible for enforcing the ministry's regulations, are warning that 3 million refugees will come to Israel if we allow in a few hundred. This argument has no practical, and certainly no moral validity. But it's impossible to complain to clerks. It is the government ministers who are responsible, and they are the ones turning a blind eye for their own convenience. There are currently 300 refugees from the Darfur region in Israel. Few manage to survive their escape.

Israel is not faced with the risk that Sudanese refugees will flood the country - certainly no more than the United States and England were during World War II, when they rejected the Jewish refugees.