Between Olmert and Khartoum
To avoid complicity in the death and suffering of innocents, the quota of refugees from Darfur allowed to stay in Israel must be raised markedly.
By Ben Lynfield Tags: Egypt DarfurLike Kurtz in Conrad's "Heart of Darkness," Sudan uses "unsound methods" in combating insurgencies: sponsoring militias to slaughter civilians, abduction and mass enslavement of youths, wholesale rape, spreading hunger.
Indeed, the genocide currently being perpetrated by Khartoum in western Sudan's Darfur region marks a continuation of the strategies and tactics deployed by the regime against the mainly Christian south during the 1983-2005 civil war. That fighting erupted as Khartoum canceled self-rule and tried to Arabize and Islamicize the south. More than 2 million people were killed.
While deciding to absorb 498 refugees from Darfur last week, the government also made clear it is adhering to its plans to expel all refugees from other parts of Sudan, about 1,300 people, most of whom come from the south. Other African asylum seekers are also to be expelled without any check on whether they are refugees or "economic migrants," as the government insists. The Sudanese slated for expulsion suffered oppression, hostility and violence after fleeing to Egypt. In December 2005, Egyptian police killed at least 30 Sudanese refugees, many of them children, as they broke up a protest opposite the United Nations High Commissioner's (UNHCR) office in Cairo.
This carnage and the recent murders by Egyptian security forces of at least three asylum seekers trying to cross to Israel, in three separate incidents, do not deter Prime Minister Ehud Olmert at all from the expulsion plans. For him, the lives of Sudanese refugees are cheap. Indeed, no evidence has been produced to support Olmert's claim of assurances from Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak that deported refugees will not be sent onward to Khartoum. There, according to lawyers contacted in the Sudanese capital on behalf of this writer, they can expect life imprisonment or the death penalty for having gone to Israel, the one country in the world to which Sudanese are forbidden to travel.
In a sense the story of Christian orphan "A" is the story of the cruelty of Sudan and the Mubarak regime; the story of the south Sudan refugees. It is a story the Olmert government has tried to obscure by classifying the Sudanese refugees as "enemy nationals" - a framing of victims that excludes them from eligibility for asylum. This has been likened by Professor Yehuda Bauer, the Holocaust scholar, to Britain's internment of Jewish refugees from Nazi Germany in 1940 as "enemy aliens." In 1999, a government-backed militia attacked A's town, murdering his mother and raping and killing his sister. During the same raid, he was abducted and then sold as a slave to an Arab Muslim in the north.
In 2001, a Christian organization purchased his freedom and brought him to Khartoum. But he says Sudanese police searched for him because he persuaded other teens who had been converted to Islam by the government's Dawa Islamiya organization to go back to Christianity. He fled to Egypt, where he was granted refugee status by the UNHCR in 2004. "A" served as a volunteer political activist in the Cairo office of the Sudan People's Liberation Movement (SPLM), the predominantly southern group that was fighting the Khartoum regime. In August 2005, he was imprisoned by Egyptian police for three weeks and beaten for his SPLM activities. A month later he was rearrested and tortured by Egyptian police, with Sudanese officials present.
Egyptian police pulled off the second fingernail of his left hand and severely beat him with a stick. He still has marks from the beating. "A" says that in June 2006, Sudanese in Cairo working for the Khartoum regime threatened to kill him unless he stopped his political activities. He escaped to Israel, where he was imprisoned for a year and then allowed to work in a hotel. With an expulsion order issued against him, one can understand why he fears for his life.
To avoid complicity in the death and suffering of innocents, the quota of those allowed to stay must be raised markedly. Both Israel and the UNHCR should ensure that the claims of all Sudanese refugees, along with those of other African asylum seekers, are fully and fairly assessed on a case-by-case basis. And if Sudanese are deemed unable to remain here, safe alternatives to Egypt must be found.
The author writes on Middle Eastern affairs for publications in the U.K. and U.S.
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Israel is the closest free country to which many Africans (and Arabs) can flee. Israel should offer then safe haven until more appropriate places for them can be found. Jews know what it is like to be turned away when seeking help, and thus we know we can not turn a blind eye to the problem. On the other hand, the world can not use Israel and the Jews as a catch-all problem solver. The refugees make it to Israel for temporary relief, then the UN and the world community can take it from there. Maybe we can put all those UNRWA resources to good use for a change.
We keep hearing stories about mass killings and rapes in Darfur but we don't get to see any video documenting these events? I'm a news adict and all I see is videos showing refugee camps full of healthy looking people. But where are the videos showing the alleged Sudanese air-force attacking villages or the so-called Janjaweed burning villages and raping women? I'm not saying that this is not happening in Darfur, but at this scale one would think that there should be plenty of video evidence as we've seen in other troubled areas of the world!
Lynfield tells us "the quota of those allowed to stay must be raised markedly." OK, what should that number be? And when that number is breached, what should Israel do with the excess? And all those from outside Israel writing in moral righteousness should tell us how many *their* country should take in. The fact that Israel lives in a bad neighborhood doesn't mean it must help all those suffering masses. It should not be seen as the refuge of first resort.
Israel can not take in every Moslem ever threatened by another Moslem. Cold shoulders are not needed, but there are literally dozens of larger countries that could take them in. Want to help South Sudan? Arm the Rebels. They don't need butter, they need cannons so they can protect the butter they have.
feel good. Look at how charitable and compassionate I am. But the truth is that Israel is too small to absorb the billions of people now living under oppressive and violent conditions. Years from now we'll have climate refugees to add to the mix. NO. The intelligent solution is to help countries live in civilized ways, not to scoop up those billions and transplant them to Israel, for God's sake. Use your brains!
THE VICTIMS OF THE DARFUR TRAGEDY AND GENOCIDE ARE CHRISTIANS.WHERE ARE THE CHRISTIAN NATIONS OF THIS GODFORSAKEN WORLD,WITH GREAT EDMPTY TERRITORIES,THAT COULD ABSORB THE ENTIRE PERSECUTED POPULATION????...WHERE ARE BRAZIL,ARGENTINA,CANADA???? THE VERY LIMITED ISRAELI TERRITORY NEEDS TO BE RESERVED FOR JEWISH PEOPLE,JUST IN CASE THE SAME MURDERERS OF SUDANESE IN DARFUR,TAKE OVER BRITAIN,AND THE REST OF EUROPESTAN...
by his offering distorted excuses, defending immaturity and lack of responsibility on part of pals and excusing their self-defeating attitudes and behaviours
Of course this message will be censored by the other idiots who run this board. But, please, if you are going to post stupid messages, at least learn the language you are writing in,
are we not a "light unto the nations"? arent we not the chosen people? considering the hell we have gone through, considering how we were turned away at the face of slaughter, should we do out utmost to help those in need? are are we just self-centered hipocrates.
No one else will take them. Don't blame Israel for this one! Send to a 3rd country ASAP and let no more into the country. We are accepting a large number for the size of this country, I'd love to see the UK or US take in the equivalent numbers. The UNHCR are already dealing with the problem. Just because someone has suffered at some stage in the past does not give carte-blanche right for citizenship.
We can't be asked to help all refugees all over the world, this is ridiculous. We are a tiny, tiny country, why does Europe and the U.S. do nothing. Let them take the other 1,300 (and I believe it is far higher than that). Letting anyone who illegally crosses our borders stay is also ridiculous and is effectively letting anyone who wants a new home come here. We are letting 500 stay (in my opinion about 200 too many). This is a huge number for a state as small as Israel. Remember, these are illegal infiltrators, muslims, who have huge families, and by their own valition came for economic reasons. They are still coming at the rate of approx 10 a day. Sorry if the Egyptians treat them badly - but maybe complain to the Egyptians and not Israel which has nothing to do with this. We can help out, but that does not mean we will take in 100s of 1000s of economic migrants - and if we don't we are criticized. Enough is enough. 500 and let themn rest go to Europe, then build a fence.
I just don't want to see anybody complaining about the countries that refused to allow Jews in during the Holocaust...
Everyone knows this man is always right.
Your post is very similar to some made in the US in th late 30s; some Germans are bothering other Germans; why are we responsible to take them in? I assume you will no longer harp on the theme of the rest of the world not taking in Jews at that time.
it is long a barbarian conflict. no one is innocent. even the victims are from an era of barbarism. it will be difficult to rescue the sudan from these uncivilized state of mind. the feuding tribes, rebels, janjaweeds all are out of control, poor desperate uneducated uncivilized unenlightened - not talking about the few exceptions... start somewhere....where?
"Peace loving" moslems are murdering other "peace loving" moslems (as, according to the left, all moslems are "peace loving" and any news stories reporting on moslem terrorism is Zionist propoganda) and the Jews are responsible to take them in????
How many of the other countries in the region have taken in as much as one Sudanese refugee? Israel has given citizenship to 250 sudanese and her resources are limited.
a problem of cristians and islamist.and not one word from Rome,from the cristian world. people are being violeted, killed, and degraded, and the only cuestion is, why those Israel with his 23000 square kilometers of land, do no asept all the misery that de islamic word is making, and the blindnes of the world dont want to see.
The UN should establish a global safe haven for all refugees, perhaps as a new experimental state. Israel has no historical or cultural connection to Sudan and it is folly to try and absorb African immigrants. We have enough homegrown social problems without importing more.
Natalie, we all know how much you hate Jews but the point about Darfur is that over 200,000 people have died with over two million displaced. Children of five are being raped and murdered in front of their mothers.Though many people disagree with Olmert's policies It' not the Israelis doing this. Do you know who is committing these heinous crimes and can you tell us something about them? Please, just for a moment forget the Israeli bashing jargon and tell us. I'll help you with a clue, Janjaweed...who are they? Why are you not out in the streets protesting since you apparently need a mission in life. I guess standing up off your chair isn't an option.
MUBARAK is tenfold!!
Lynfield I am not an Olmert supporter, BUT we have our own refugees from Gush Katif (heard of it???) whom our Govt dealt with so harshly. You have a nerve writing this article - we Israelis do not deserve it.
"Insurgencies", "terrorism", the terms are interchangable.