Many Sudanese seek refuge in Israel
Seeking refuge: A Sudanese refugee wearing an Israeli Army Elite Paratrooper unit jumper works at a plumbing parts factory at the Israeli Kibbutz of Maagan Michael. Collective farms that for decades formed the Zionist backbone of Israel today shelter scores of refugees from Sudan.Picture: AFP TO GO WITH AFP STORY BY JENNIE MATTHEWA Sudanese refugee wearing an Israeli Army Elite Paratrooper unit jumper works at a plumbing parts factory 28 February 2007 at the Israeli Kibbutz of Maagan Michael. Collective farms that for decades formed the Zionis
Saturday, March 10, 2007
COLLECTIVE farms that for decades formed the Zionist backbone of Israel today shelter scores of Muslim refugees from Sudan who walked into the Jewish state to flee persecution.
Ali said his life as a farmer in Sudan's western Darfur region ended four years ago when the pro-government Janjaweed militia ransacked his village and slaughtered 40 of his relatives in the civil war between Khartoum and rebel groups.
Today he works for the minimum wage on a 'kibbutz' that makes plastic components, joins his adoptive family for the Jewish Sabbath and watches football on his own television.
But Ali remains tortured by memories of his wife and child, and has no idea if they are dead or alive. He last saw them two years ago, sheltering under a tree as he went to fetch supplies.
That was when he was captured by the Janjaweed. He said they beat him, slapped him in prison, deprived him of food and water and three times threw him to a poisonous snake for their personal amusement.
Eventually they released him to act as an informer. A fellow Massalit tribesman then took him to Khartoum on a donkey and hid him before Ali fled to Egypt.
There, like many of the 330 Sudanese refugees now living in Israel, he was granted permission to live.
But life was hard. His experience in war-torn Darfur at the hands of the authorities had instilled in him a collective distrust of Arabs, so he bribed an Egyptian border guard to let him walk across the desert into Israel.
"Israel is better," Ali said, at the same time admitting that he knew little about the country beforehand other than "Israelis and Palestinians kill each other".
Within minutes of his arrival on Israeli soil he was arrested for being a citizen of an enemy state and a threat to security. But after Ali spent more than a year in prison, an Israeli court allowed him to swap jail for life on the 'kibbutz'.
The Committee for the Advancement of Refugees from Darfur, or Card, is an advocacy group that campaigns for the quick release of all jailed Sudanese to 'kibbutzim' or moshavim agricultural cooperatives and a final legal solution to their fate.
But for the more than 100 Sudanese farmed out to 20 such communities, their detention and deportation warrants remain effective, meaning they have the same legal status as prisoners, said Card spokesman Eitan Schwartz.
Israel's dilemma is what to do with these "enemy citizens". They cannot deport them back to Sudan or send them to Egypt — where many have refugee status — because Egypt has not guaranteed it will not deport them either.
While campaigners believe Israel will ultimately let some stay, they believe the authorities fear that setting a precedent could encourage hundreds of thousands of non-Jews from neighbouring enemy states to seek refugee.AFP
Ali said his life as a farmer in Sudan's western Darfur region ended four years ago when the pro-government Janjaweed militia ransacked his village and slaughtered 40 of his relatives in the civil war between Khartoum and rebel groups.
Today he works for the minimum wage on a 'kibbutz' that makes plastic components, joins his adoptive family for the Jewish Sabbath and watches football on his own television.
But Ali remains tortured by memories of his wife and child, and has no idea if they are dead or alive. He last saw them two years ago, sheltering under a tree as he went to fetch supplies.
That was when he was captured by the Janjaweed. He said they beat him, slapped him in prison, deprived him of food and water and three times threw him to a poisonous snake for their personal amusement.
Eventually they released him to act as an informer. A fellow Massalit tribesman then took him to Khartoum on a donkey and hid him before Ali fled to Egypt.
There, like many of the 330 Sudanese refugees now living in Israel, he was granted permission to live.
But life was hard. His experience in war-torn Darfur at the hands of the authorities had instilled in him a collective distrust of Arabs, so he bribed an Egyptian border guard to let him walk across the desert into Israel.
"Israel is better," Ali said, at the same time admitting that he knew little about the country beforehand other than "Israelis and Palestinians kill each other".
Within minutes of his arrival on Israeli soil he was arrested for being a citizen of an enemy state and a threat to security. But after Ali spent more than a year in prison, an Israeli court allowed him to swap jail for life on the 'kibbutz'.
The Committee for the Advancement of Refugees from Darfur, or Card, is an advocacy group that campaigns for the quick release of all jailed Sudanese to 'kibbutzim' or moshavim agricultural cooperatives and a final legal solution to their fate.
But for the more than 100 Sudanese farmed out to 20 such communities, their detention and deportation warrants remain effective, meaning they have the same legal status as prisoners, said Card spokesman Eitan Schwartz.
Israel's dilemma is what to do with these "enemy citizens". They cannot deport them back to Sudan or send them to Egypt — where many have refugee status — because Egypt has not guaranteed it will not deport them either.
While campaigners believe Israel will ultimately let some stay, they believe the authorities fear that setting a precedent could encourage hundreds of thousands of non-Jews from neighbouring enemy states to seek refugee.AFP
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