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Sudanese refugees in Be'er Sheva last week. (Archives)
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MKs oppose the deportation of Darfur refugees back to Egypt
By Mijal Grinberg, Haaretz Correspondent, and The Associated Press

Dozens of legislators from across the political spectrum have urged the government to refrain from deporting to Egypt Sudanese refugees who enter Israel through the Sinai Peninsula.

Channel 10 reported Thursday on Israeli soldiers who said they had witnessed Egyptian security officers executing several refugees.

"The refugees need protection and sanctuary, and the Jewish people's history as well as the values of democracy and humanity pose a moral imperative for us to give them that shelter," the MKs said in a petition.
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The document has been signed by 63 MKs including Likud Chairman Benjamin Netanyahu, Labor's Amir Peretz, Hadash's Dov Khenin and the National Religious Party's Effi Eitam.

The legislators propose to keep the refugees here until they are transferred to a safe haven abroad. MKs who signed the petition added suggestions such as building a high fence along the Egyptian border and stipulating quotas for the absorption of refugees.

The petition against deporting Sudanese asylum-seekers back to Egypt is the initiative of a group of students from Jerusalem and Ben Gurion University in Be'er Sheva.

Many of the students first encountered the refugees up close in the capital. The Sudanese refugees were housed there in tents after they had entered Israel through Egypt, after escaping the genocide in the Western Sudan region of Darfur.

In conversations with refugees, the students became convinced that deportation to Egypt was tantamount to a death sentence.

"Our student group was concerned with raising the public's awareness to the refugees' plight," activist Na'ama Katz said. "When they arrived in Wohl Rose Park in Jerusalem, we got a chance to actually see what shape they were in. We began gathering testimonies and interviewing them. They told us they had been persecuted in Egypt, and we understood what going back there meant for them."

According to Katz, many of the refugees told the students that they had suffered persecution and physical abuse in Egypt. One of them who wished to remain anonymous told Haaretz that at some point during his stay in Egypt, he and his family were afraid to leave home for fear of being beaten.

"After Sudanese refugees took to demonstrating in Egypt in 2005, it was no longer safe for us to go out on the street. We couldn't go to the police because they were part of it. The Egyptian police joined in on harassing us refugees," he said.

According to an inter-ministerial committee on refugees crossing into Israel from Sinai, about 1,400 are currently in Israel. The committee was headed by Interior Minister Roni Bar-On.

In talks last month on the African refugees, Prime Minister Ehud Olmert said that any refugee caught crossing into Israel from Egypt would be returned to that country through an official crossing. Olmert said the matter had been finalized in discussions with Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak.

Egyptian soldiers murder Sudanese refugees near border with Israel

Egyptian soldiers murdered three Sudanese refugees, beating two to death in front of horrified Israel Defense Forces soldiers, Channel 10 television reported Thursday, screening what it said was army surveillance video and interviews with the soldiers.

Egyptian police told The Associated Press that authorities arrested two Sudanese refugees Thursday, seriously injuring one when he scuffled with police. But Egyptian police Captian Mohammed Badr did not report any deaths.

Channel 10 TV said the incident happened late Wednesday night. The refugees are seen running toward the Israeli border in the video. Then, according to one of the soldiers, who was not identified and whose voice was distorted, Egyptian soldiers opened fire, killing one and wounding the other.

The third tried to climb the border fence but was tackled by Egyptian soldiers, the TV report said.

IDF soldiers were sent to the scene to try to help the refugees, and at one point they got into a tug-of-war with the Egyptians, each side holding on to the Sudanese.

"We pulled one way they pulled another, they pointed their guns at us," said one of the soldiers. He said they let go for fear that the Egyptians would fire at them.

Then the IDF soldiers said they watched helplessly as the Egyptians passed the two refugees from one to the other, beating them. "We saw them gang up on them and beat them on the ground until they stopped moving, said one of the men identified as a soldier.

"They killed two men with their own hands and sticks and rocks," he said. "We heard them crying and screeching in pain until they died."

The IDF said it was looking into the incident. There was no confirmation from Egypt of any refugees being killed.

Hundreds of Sudanese refugees, many from the war-wracked Darfur region, have crossed the desert border from Egypt into Israel in recent months.

Last month, Egyptian border guards shot and killed a Sudanese woman and wounded four others. She was the first Sudanese refugee to be killed
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  1.   NO to sending back the Sudanese refugees to Egypt. 22:23  |  bat yam 02/08/07
  2.   Any comment Al Jazeera? London Times? Le Monde? CNN Internationl? 22:36  |  Abir 02/08/07
  3.   Israeli soldiers are UNHAPPY about shoointg border crossers? 22:40  |  .. 02/08/07
  4.   Terrible... 22:54  |  Jack 02/08/07
  5.   Demand to Know Who Did This 23:07  |  Yaakov Sullivan 02/08/07
  6.   Israel plays both sides of the net simultaneously 23:14  |  Natallie Durson 02/08/07
  7.   True? 23:15  |  Paul 02/08/07
  8.   to no 3 23:15  |  fish 02/08/07
  9.   No sympathies for dead refugees? Nope ... 23:18  |  Catholic 02/08/07
  10.   #3 iss wrong ! 23:40  |  Howard 02/08/07
  11.   It seems that Egypt is using the Sudanese 23:46  |  Reuben Jacobs 02/08/07
  12.   @"Natallie Durson", the clown 23:47  |  LAPD 02/08/07
  13.   #3 23:48  |  alan 02/08/07
  14.   Beaten to death with hands rocks and sticks? 23:48  |  Lynn 02/08/07
  15.   # 5 Yaakov, nothing will happen....... 23:50  |  Lynn 02/08/07
  16.   Tell me, Natallie Durson ... 23:50  |  civilized kid 02/08/07
  17.   Return All African "Refugees" Under UN Flag 23:56  |  Bill Foonman 02/08/07
  18.   sudanese refugees 23:57  |  STEVE GARDNER 02/08/07
  19.   it is impossible 23:57  |  Egyptian 02/08/07
  20.   For Natallie Durson, the heart of stone, lectures Israel 23:58  |  Ed 02/08/07
  21.   DOGS WILL ALWAYS BE DOGS. 00:04  |  ottomatik 03/08/07
  22.   This should settle the issue of sending Sudanese to Egypt 00:05  |  mg 03/08/07
  23.   #3 - the difference between a refugee and terrorist 00:05  |  William 03/08/07
  24.   Natallie#6 - typical apologist 00:07  |  William 03/08/07
  25.   Israel release the tape 00:17  |  Gil 03/08/07
  26.   What if they were Palestinian Refugees? 00:27  |  Joe 03/08/07
  27.   But Jimmy says Israel is an apartheid state! 00:43  |  Cynic 03/08/07
  28.   Israeli Humane IDF Soldiers 00:48  |  Darwish 03/08/07
  29.   Poor Poor Africans 00:50  |  Jane 03/08/07
  30.   Ms. Durson #6 Are You Blind? 00:50  |  GenerX 03/08/07
  31.   Egypt Controlling its Border--Zionist Demand 00:55  |  MaoSayTongue 03/08/07
  32.   egyptian barbarians 00:58  |  bob 03/08/07
  33.   YES to sending back the Sudanese refugees to Egypt 00:59  |  Bat Yam 03/08/07
  34.   #2 - Abir, I concur 01:01  |  Ryan 03/08/07
  35.   Dispicable. Not the IDF...talking about Natalie Durson 01:05  |  GrossedOut 03/08/07
  36.   were is clickfool 01:06  |  Michael 03/08/07
  37.   11 Lynn - Must be those Mossad boys at it once again - 01:08  |  british academic 03/08/07
  38.   Arabs lynching prisoners? Say it ain`t so! 01:25  |  Paul Taylor 03/08/07
  39.   Fear 01:31  |  a 03/08/07
  40.   Natalie Durson 01:31  |  Danite 03/08/07
  41.   Bat Yam 01:34  |  Repunzal 03/08/07
  42.   Learn English: To lynch is to hang (by mob) 01:38  |  Gary 03/08/07
  43.   To All Jews 01:42  |  Rabbi Yakov Lazaros 03/08/07
  44.   #2 International Media 01:43  |  Red 03/08/07
  45.   #6 01:47  |  Moshe 03/08/07
  46.   Release the tape! 01:55  |  Gili 03/08/07
  47.   To Rabbi Yakov Lazaros re anti-Semites 02:10  |  Lee 03/08/07
  48.   Gary # 18 - Go get your school-fees back! 02:11  |  Kim 03/08/07
  49.   Islam in action, it`s disgusting beyond belief 02:12  |  Johnny 03/08/07
  50.   I`ll write for Clickfool 02:17  |  Kevin 03/08/07
  51.   Egypt Shoots Refugees, Durson Blames Israel 02:20  |  Dyinglikeflies 03/08/07
  52.   sounds like B.S, 02:23  |  Wendy 03/08/07
  53.   to Lazaros 02:31  |  sleven 03/08/07
  54.   Natalie Durson and MaoSayTongue 02:31  |  KT 03/08/07
  55.   Arabs at their finest. 02:32  |  Amnon 03/08/07
  56.   Natalie Durson-# 6 -who plays both sides of the net? 02:44  |  Daniel Leopold 03/08/07
  57.   And where are the BBC? 02:50  |  Frank 03/08/07
  58.   If they were Arab Weapons Smugglers they would be Alive 03:02  |  Efox 03/08/07
  59.   #2 Abir 03:07  |  John 03/08/07
  60.   Those Who Slander Israel Make Excuses for Egypt 03:07  |  Efox 03/08/07
  61.   SERIOUS QUESTON for ULTRA-LEFTISTS 03:09  |  Mario 03/08/07
  62.   re: Natallie Durson 03:10  |  Efox 03/08/07
  63.   I was wondering that.... 03:29  |  MaryRose 03/08/07
  64.   Response to Mario 04:15  |  Donny Beisbol 03/08/07
  65.   anybody see the video? 05:52  |  eric 03/08/07
  66.   Killer Pharaohs 06:00  |  Sam 03/08/07
  67.   to #43 06:05  |  Henry 03/08/07
  68.   Deportting refugees 07:11  |  Tsegaye 03/08/07
  69.   ERIC, as usual damns IDF either way 07:28  |  * BEN JABO 03/08/07
  70.   Refugees beaten to death 07:34  |  Franco 03/08/07
  71.   WTF!! These Africans already got refuge in Egypt! They are the 07:57  |  David H 03/08/07
  72.   #42 - Repunzal - The heck with the international media. The West 08:04  |  David H 03/08/07
  73.   To Donny Beisbol 08:05  |  Mario 03/08/07
  74.   Inevitably Natallie #6 08:23  |  Esther 03/08/07
  75.   Cynic-28: Jimmy`s words vs Bibi & others` 08:27  |  Highlander 03/08/07
  76.   Paul`s Denial 08:45  |  Jihad 03/08/07
  77.   Deliver them from evil 09:00  |  B 03/08/07
  78.   The Falash Mura have not been absorped properly, how on earth 10:06  |  Aaron 03/08/07
  79.   A good compromise 11:11  |  SM 03/08/07
  80.   IT LOOKS OBVIOUS, FROM THE NAMES 11:32  |  Robert