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Friday April 20, 2007

Israeli youth group protests treatment of Darfur refugees

by anat bereshkovsky
ynetnews.com

Several members of the Meretz Youth movement protested outside the Interior Ministry in Jerusalem on Monday, April 16 against what they said was Israel’s unfair treatment of refugees from Darfur.

The demonstrators, who purposely chose Holocaust Remembrance Day to voice their protest, said Israel should be the first to welcome the refugees.

“On a day when the country unites in the memory of the 6 million Jews who were murdered during the Holocaust, we say that Israel must keep its doors open to the Darfur refugees, despite the fact that we have no diplomatic relations with Sudan,” said Meretz Youth chairman Uri Zacki.

“Only yesterday Prime Minister Ehud Olmert said during the ceremony at Yad Vashem that we must uproot any shred of racism. Israel cannot hide behind the screens of diplomacy and must allow the refugees to enter.”

He said that the Darfur refugees “are being defined by Israeli authorities as illegal residents and are being held like prisoners even though their only crime is that they want to live. They should be welcomed with open arms.”

Male refugees that cross the border from Egypt are imprisoned, while the women and children are put in shelters for battered women or other makeshift facilities.

Negev Sub-District Police officials say the refugees are the IDF’s responsibility, while the Immigration Administration blames the army for not returning the refugees to Egyptian authorities.

The Committee for Advancement of Refugees from Darfur says sending the refugees back to Egypt is in violation of the Geneva Convention.

“Israel must welcome the refugees and do everything to help them out,” committee member Sigal Rosen told Ynet.

“According to a clause in the Geneva Convention that was initiated by Israel, a refugee must be granted political asylum if he or she requests it; this clause is being violated constantly.”

Israel’s kibbutzes and moshavs have absorbed some 155 Darfur refugees so far.

“The Jewish nation should be the first to set an example for humane treatment of refugees who flee the genocide in their country,” Kibbutz Movement member Gavri Bar-Gil said.

Lilach Shoval contributed to the report.

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