Israel to turn away Darfur refugees

...Where else on God’s earth can the afflicted and persecuted people of Darfur fleeing genocide seek solace and refuge?

By MATTI FRIEDMAN, Associated Press Writer

Sun Aug 19, 5:40 PM ET

JERUSALEM - Israel said Sunday it will no longer allow refugees from Darfur to stay after they sneak across the border from Egypt, drawing criticism from those who say the Jewish state is morally obliged to offer sanctuary to people fleeing mass murder. Israel has been grappling for months over how to deal with the swelling numbers of Africans, including some from Darfur, who have been crossing the porous desert border.

The number of migrants has shot up to as many as 50 a day, according to the U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees, apparently as word of job opportunities in Israel has spread. The rise has led to concerns that the country could face a flood of African refugees if it doesn't take a harsher stand on asylum seekers. But Israel has not turned back refugees from Darfur until now, and last month Prime Minister Ehud Olmert said a limited number would even be allowed to remain in Israel. On Sunday, a government spokesman said all new asylum seekers would be sent back to Egypt, with no exception.

"The policy of returning back anyone who enters Israel illegally will pertain to everyone, including those from Darfur," spokesman David Baker said. He offered no explanation for the change. Overnight, Israel returned 48 Africans to Egypt. An Israeli government official said Egypt had guaranteed that any Darfur refugees would not be forced to return to Sudan. The official spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to release that information to the press.

Egyptian Foreign Minister Ahmed Aboul Gheit told reporters Sunday that Egypt would accept the refugees for "very pressing humanitarian reasons" but that this type of transfer "would not be repeated again." Fighting between pro-government militias and rebels in Darfur has killed more than 200,000 people and displaced 2.5 million since February 2003. Most of the displaced people remain in Darfur, but the U.N. estimates that 236,000 have fled across the border to neighboring Chad, where they live in camps. Tens of thousands of others have sought sanctuary in Egypt, which is ill-equipped to provide them with jobs and social services.

About 400 of the Darfurians who reached Egypt have driven and trekked through desert sands to cross the unfenced frontier with Israel, according to the refugees' advocates in Israel.
Israel's response to the unexpected arrivals has been mixed. Threats to expel them have clashed with sentiments inspired by the memory of Jews seeking sanctuary from the Nazis before and during World War II and being turned away. Some volunteers have helped migrants find jobs and housing.

Eytan Schwartz, an advocate for Darfur refugees in Israel, objected to any ban on the asylum seekers. "The state of Israel has to show compassion for refugees after the Jewish people was subject to persecution throughout its history," he said. The Association for Civil Rights in Israel said in a statement that it is, "Israel's moral and legal obligation to accept any refugees or asylum seekers facing life-threatening danger or infringements on their freedom."
But Ephraim Zuroff of the Nazi-hunting Simon Wiesenthal Center said the Jewish people could not be expected to right every wrong just because of its past. "Israel can't throw open the gates and allow unlimited access for people who are basically economic refugees," Zuroff said.
The Darfurians found sanctuary from the killings in Sudan by fleeing to Egypt, he said, but their arrival in Israel "was motivated primarily by the difficult living conditions and bleak economic prospects in that country."

That the refugees are from Sudan further complicates the matter, because Israeli law denies asylum to anyone from an enemy state. Sudan's Muslim government is hostile to Israel and has no diplomatic ties with the Jewish state. Although the case of the Darfur refugees is unusual, the late Prime Minister Menachem Begin set a precedent in 1977 when he offered asylum to nearly 400 Vietnamese boat people. Israel estimates that 2,800 people have entered the country illegally through Egypt's Sinai desert in recent years. Nearly all are from Africa, including 1,160 from Sudan. Many spent months or years in Egypt before entering Israel.

Israel has repeatedly urged Egypt to step up its surveillance of the border to prevent the illegal flow of goods and people. Egypt has responded by beefing up its efforts recently, with almost daily reports of African refugees being arrested before entering Israel. In July, Egyptian police shot and killed a Sudanese woman who was trying to cross into Israel, the first confirmed death of its kind. And earlier this month, Israeli media reported that Egyptian border guards beat to death two Sudanese men in front of Israeli soldiers. Egypt neither confirmed nor denied the incident.

Israel to turn away Darfur refugees

8/20/2007 01:12:00 AM africa, human rights, media, world

Dusk at the Lake

A quiet evening at the lake brings glorious photograph! - Cootes Paradise 2007

Dusk at the Lake

8/06/2007 11:19:00 PM arts and culture, reflections

Of Slavery, Monuments and Commemorations

The contentious issue of Reparations for Slavery seems to be engaging more and more academic interest these days as evident from the following recent publications:

- Rhoda E. Howard-Hassmann, “Reparations to Africa and the Group of Eminent Persons,” Cahiers d'études africaines

- Rhoda E. Howard-Hassmann, “Getting to Reparations: Japanese Americans and African Americans” Social Forces, 83, 2 (Dec., 2004), pp. 823-840

- Victor T. Le Vine, Commentary on "Framing Reparations Claims: Differences between the African and Jewish Social Movements for Reparations"African Studies Review - Volume 50, Number 1, April 2007, pp. 49-51

- Rhoda E. Howard-Hassmann, Lombardo, Anthony P. Framing Reparations Claims: Differences between the African and Jewish Social Movements for ReparationsAfrican Studies Review, 50, 1, 2007, 27-48.

- Ricardo Rene Laremont, “Jewish and Japanese American Reparations: Political Lessons for the Africana Community,” Journal of Asian American Studies - Volume 4, Number 3, October 2001, pp. 235-250

- Rhoda E. Howard-Hassmann, “Reparations to Africa and the Group of Eminent Persons,” Cahiers d'études africaines

Here is an excerpt from the last article on the list:

“There are two major precedents for reparations to Africa. They are reparations to Jews for the Holocaust, and the movement in the United States for reparations to African-Americans. The issue of reparations to Jews for the Holocaust resurfaced in international discussion in the 1990s when Jewish groups began to demand that unpaid life insurance policies on victims of the Holocaust be paid, and that monies deposited by Jews in Swiss banks before and during the Second World War be paid to survivors of murdered Jews (Barkan 2000: 3-29, 88-111; Brooks 1999: 13-81). Increasingly, African-Americans and Africans became aware that “some” people–most especially Jews–seemed to be entitled to reparations for their suffering, while others were not. That in the view of many people in the formerly colonized world, Jews had become colonial oppressors of Palestinians merely compounded the problem. In some African eyes, it appeared that “white” victims of mass atrocities were entitled to compensation, while non-white victims were not. Thus Mazrui (2002: 87) asked: “How do twelve years of Jewish hell… compare to several centuries of Black enslavement?” Abiola (1992: 910) shortened the period of Jewish suffering even further, referring to the “six-year holocaust perpetrated against Jews by Hitler”. Joseph Ndiaye, curator in 1998 of the Maison des Esclaves (House of Slaves) on the Island of Goree off Senegal, from which slaves apparently used to be shipped to the Americas, offered a similar opinion. He said: “We never stop hearing about the Holocaust, but how often do we dwell on the tragedy that took place here over 350 years; a tragedy that consumed tens of millions of lives?”

"How do twelve years of Jewish Hell compare to several centuries ofBlack enslavements."

– Ali Mazrui

I personally find no reason in comparing African slavery with the Jewish Holocaust, save for purely academic and heuristic purposes. There is something about comparing tragedies and the mentality of “My pain is greater than yours” that I find unsettling. However, Ali Mazriu's question speaks to a concern that has been frequently expressed by many Africans and Africanists. It is concern, not so much about reparations for slavery, but about the commemoration of slavery.

How many major Holocaust Museums, monuments and Memorials are there in North America? 20? 40? 50? How many major museums and memorials to the slave trade are there in North America? NONE. I know this because I teach an African Diaspora class where we focus on slave commemorations and memorials. True, there are a few monuments to commemorate slavery scattered across the US and Canada. There are also several slave exhibits in museums across the US (The Smithsonian even has one) but no single major slave museum. There is no national institution dedicated to the documentation, study, and interpretation of Slavery as there is in the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum.
It is only now that efforts are being made to establish a National Slave Museums though the private initiative and funds of some prominent African Americans. http://www.usnationalslaverymuseum.org/home.asp

Even then, the project has been dogged with controversy. Lengthyeditorials have been written about how a slave museum is unnecessarybecause it would open up "old wounds." Others have suggested a"National African American Heritage Museum? Rather than a "SlaveMuseum." So, the question I ask is "Who is Afraid of a SlaveMuseum?" Why does Africa’s pain matter less? Issues like this are atthe heart of the reparations debate? -- An overwhelming sense thatAfrica’s pain, Africa’s experiences and Africans themselves matter lessthan others.

This is what I think this debate should really be about –- not reparations but commemoration. How and why have we remembered or failed to remember slavery in our societies? What have we done to commemorate that human tragedy and honor the memory and contributions of its teeming victims? Why do we persist in giving the unsetting impression that the pains of some matters more than those of others? Talk about the commemoration of slavery must precede any talk of reparations for slavery!

Of Slavery, Monuments and Commemorations

8/06/2007 09:58:00 PM africa, education, history, human rights, slavery