African refugees in Levinsky Park
in Tel Aviv. Israelis protest against African migrant workers in south Tel
Aviv, May 23, 2012. Photo by Moti Milrod
Israel, South Sudan want to repatriate refugees from April 1
Foreign Ministry sources relay that Israel's Ambassador to South
Sudan has met with the republic's vice president to coordinate the
return.
By
Barak Ravid
and Dana
Weiler-Polak | Mar.27, 2012 | 1:37 AM
Israel and South Sudan
are working out a deal for the return of some 1,500 refugees currently residing
in this country to their homes in the African republic, starting April 1.
Foreign Ministry sources in Jerusalem relay that
Israel's Ambassador to South Sudan, Dan Shaham, has met with the republic's vice
president, Riek Machar, to coordinate the return.
Israel's actions come in the midst of a recent
extension by the United Nations and United States to protect South
Sudanese citizens until May 2013. According to a UN report and evidence on the
ground, problems still exist in South Sudan,
including human rights violations and ongoing fighting.
The
Foreign Ministry sources say that refugees have returned voluntarily to South Sudan in the past. This happened on a small scale
and did not necessitate coordination with South Sudan's
government. As a result of the large number of refugees now in question, and
also due to the fact that most of the South Sudanese citizens would not
voluntarily return to their home country, the current plan requires
coordination between the two countries.
Following
the declaration of independence of South Sudan in July 2011, and the visit of
South Sudan President Salva Kiir to Israel that December, it was
decided that the country's citizens would be able to return to their countries
without fear. The Interior Ministry announced that every citizen who returned
voluntarily would be granted $1,300, and that anyone that did not go back of
their own accord would be expelled. In late January, the Interior Ministry's
Population and Immigration Authority announced it would remove, at the end of
March, the group protection granted to South Sudanese asylum seekers who
arrived in Israel
after escaping war in their country.
Shaham
resides in Jerusalem and travels to South
Sudan's capital, Juba, every few months. In a
few weeks, he will complete his term and will be replaced by the diplomat Haim
Koren. The Israeli ambassador traveled to Juba last week, and stayed in South Sudan for a number of days. The sources say that
one of his goals during his visit to Juba was to review conditions in the
country, and determine whether they are suited for the absorption of the
refugees who now reside in Israel.
Shaham also tried to coordinate the dates for their return with South Sudanese
officials.
Shaham
told Vice President Machar that Israel
is committed to giving professional training to these South Sudanese citizens
before their return, so as to help them find work in their home country and
support themselves there.
The vice president also asked that Israel establish in Juba
a Hebrew language school for returned refugees who are not fluent in the native
tongue.
Meanwhile, a United
Nations report and evidence on the ground showed that the situation in South Sudan has not changed substantially. According to
those sources, human rights violations continue, fighting is ongoing and there
is a severe shortage of food and water, which is likely to lead to a
humanitarian crisis in the country. However, unlike the stance of the United
Nations and United States,
who extended the protection for South Sudan
citizens until May 2013, assessments by the Foreign Ministry show that the
situation in the state is safe enough.
Israelis
protest against African migrant workers in south Tel Aviv, May 23, 2012. Photo by Moti
Milrod
By
Tomer Zarchin
and Ilan Lior
May.24,2012 | 2:44
AM
Some
1,000 protesters rallied in Tel Aviv's Hatikva neighborhood on Wednesday and
called for the ousting of African asylum seekers from Israel.
Demonstrators
attacked African passersby while others lit garbage cans on fire and smashed
car windows.
Another
group of demonstrators stopped a shuttle taxi and searched for migrant workers
among the passengers, while banging on the windows.
The
crowd cried "The people want the Sudanese deported" and
"Infiltrators get out of our home."
Likud
MK Miri Regev participated in the protest and said that "the Sudanese were
a cancer in our body."
The
protesters expressed their dismay with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu
and the government's dealings with the "problem" of asylum seekers.
Some people carried signs in support of Interior Minister Eli Yishai, who called for the detention and expulsion of all asylum
seekers earlier this week.
Following
the protest, hundreds of people assembled in the main street of the Hatikvah
neighborhood. Several protesters smashed the windows of a grocery store that
served the migrant workers community, broke the windows of a barber shop and
looted it.
Police
arrested 17 people during the protest, with some of them detained while beating
Sudanese migrants. Those arrested will be brought in before the Tel Aviv
Magistrate's Court on Thursday for an extension of their remand.
Earlier
Wednesday, Attorney General Yehuda Weinstein said he supported the mass
deportation of South Sudanese migrants if an investigation will find that they
are not legally entitled to refuge.
Weinstein
will argue next week before the Jerusalem District Court that there is no legal
obstacle to the expulsions since individual checks will establish that none of
them face any threat to their lives in South Sudan.
The
Jerusalem District Court recently issued a temporary order prohibiting the
migrants' deportation until it rules on a petition filed by five human rights
organizations against the state's intent to deport the refugees.
Weinstein,
who has expressed support for sending migrants from South
Sudan back home, will ask the court to lift the temporary order
preventing their expulsion.
The
Foreign Ministry recently outlined its position regarding 700 South Sudan
nationals staying in Israel;
the government says there are as many as 3,000 here.
The
position is based on a report by Ambassador Dan Shaham, who was sent to South Sudan in April to examine the situation and see if
it was suitable to return the migrants.
The
document says returning the South Sudanese nationals in general would not
constitute a breach of international law, which prohibits a state from
expelling foreign nationals if returning them to their home country presents a
clear and immediate danger to their life.
Haaretz Readers Comments
·
By
Israeli
·
24 May
2012
·
11:36AM
i
am just embarrassed by this.
·
By John
Shirley
·
24 May
2012
·
11:31AM
Isn't
it lucky for the jewish asylum seekers who fled to the UK in the late 1930s that we didn't
treat them in the same way as Likud proposes?
·
By
Alfred
·
24 May
2012
·
11:28AM
Wouldn't
want, would we. Broken glass is never good.
·
By
Carlos
·
24 May
2012
·
11:06AM
Nice
o
By
Absolute Sweden
o
24 May
2012
o
11:36AM
·
By Yosi
·
24 May
2012
·
10:36AM
And
even a thousand refugees make a visible difference. Of course i wont support
this wild demonstrations, but this is because of the inability of the
government to deal with the issue. Jews are already in a state of mind being
threatened with change of demographics, Iran and countless terrorist
groups. So a social uprest against foreigners is some what expected.
o
By Florence
o
24 May
2012
o
11:10AM
Yes,
this social unrest can be expected, but it is not acceptable. What a shame for Israel!
·
By OMG
·
24 May
2012
·
10:00AM
omg...what
happened to understanding and caring for others because we were once strangers
i a strange land....
·
By TC
·
24 May
2012
·
09:59AM
You
actually have a major political party inciting violence against a whole group
of people? Did members of this group commit a crime. At least they have been accused
of that. But this is outrageous. Your own night of broken glass. You must be
proud.
·
By
Dennis L.
·
24 May
2012
·
05:52AM
The
South Sudanese are being forced to flee from continued attacks from the north.
The Muslim Sudanese are continuing their campaign of terror and murder against
the people of a new nation. Think back to the 1930s and substitute South
Sudanese for German Jews and how countries actively pursued policies to prevent
Jewish refugees from reaching a safe haven. Such rhetoric against involuntary
refugees is reprehensible. Jews, of all people, should have a long historical
memory and identify with the victims of other persecutions and mass murder.
o
By Oren
Aviv
o
24 May
2012
o
11:40AM
Do
you even check intel? The south sudanese are fighting each other, and at
government level they are fighting the northen sudanese...
·
By Ian
·
24 May
2012
·
05:03AM
They would go to all the Israeli
bashers and say. Look at where poor desperate people come to try for a new
start and rub this in there faces. But with actions like this they are shooting
themselves in the foot. But as an American I can't talk because two Presidents
have tried and failed to get a comprehensive immigration reform plan pass
·
By
Machado
·
24 May
2012
·
04:31AM
I
cannot believe that I have lived to see it. The"indigenous" outraged
by an influx of foreigners. It is like pre-Israel all over again.Like the
Palestinians you too will have to accept the foreigners unless you truly want
to return to the practices of the Europeans who caused your forebears to seek
refuge in Palestine.
I hope that reason overcomes emotion for all concerned but history does not
suggest cause for optimism.
·
By
mehmet-istanbul
·
24 May
2012
·
04:20AM
I
thought Israel WAS A COUNTRY WHERE THE RULE OF LAW WAS RESPECTED. IT SEEMS THAT
THAT IS NO LONGER THE CASE.
o
By john
P
o
24 May 2012
o
10:24AM
I
think you forgot to talk about international law and Human rights conventions
·
By Mark
·
24 May
2012
·
04:19AM
Strange
howa few years ago Israelis and American Jewish organizations were championing
Darfur rights and offering assistance to Darfur, but when the Sundanese
literally come to Israel for
help, Israel's
support suddenly disappears.
o
By JW
o
24 May
2012
o
11:25AM
Noone
likes to have their kindness thrown back in their face so the reponse from
ordinary Israelis might be seen as justified. However, attacking the sudanese
immigrants is racism, plain and simple. The real protest should be against the
government for not attempting to deal with the forseeable problems of this type
of economic migrant and the police for ineffective policing.
·
By
Freedom fighter
·
24 May
2012
·
03:49AM
o
By
Absolute Sweden
o
24 May
2012
o
09:56AM
·
By
marcelo tuchman
·
24 May
2012
·
03:49AM
STOP
THE ENTERING OF THESE PEOPLE, AS THE US
DOES WITH MEXICAN BORDER; EXTENSIVE POLICEMENT IN BORDERS WITH EGYPT AND GAZA.
·
By Mike
·
24 May
2012
·
03:46AM
Most
of the people in Isarel are immigrants. Jews have migrated between countries
specially in huge numbers recently to the US,
EU, and Israel.
Now, Israel
wants to expel a few 1000 immigrants. That is an amazing turn of events. Treat
others the way you want to be treated.
·
By
Elias
·
24 May
2012
·
03:18AM
I
don't think anyone would blame the Israelis, economic migrants are a problem
the world over, it might send them the right message.
·
By JRH
·
24 May
2012
·
03:13AM
Oh,
the irony
·
By Pinback
·
24 May
2012
·
03:06AM
Every
UN member is obligated to accept and care for refugees under the 1951 / 1967
Refugee convention to which Israel
is a signatory. Israel
as a modern nation was founded by refugees, which makes this action all the
more unfortunate. Illegal immigration must of course be controlled but
legitimate refugees must be dealt with in a compassionate manner or it reflects
very badly on the state. This issue has already been reported in the
international press. http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2012/may/24/tel-aviv-protest-violence-immigration
o
By
Kaddish
o
24 May
2012
o
11:07AM
Lecturing
the Israeli people, while defending his own frontiers at home. I'm pretty sure
you don't apply in your country what you advocate so cheerfuly for Israel.
BLOGER
"If you are black
Never come back
We care not if you are a jew
Boo, boo, boo
Shoo, shoo, shoo
We care not if you are a jew
Boo, boo, boo
Shoo, shoo, shoo
Israel is for the white
And they are sitting tight
It is for the Askinasi
Waz, wasi, wasi."
War declaration against black African
israel is commonist country. which can not be obied by the international law.discriminaotrs racism unbehaved unlawfull
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