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Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsIsrael starts rounding up Africans for deportation
AFP - Israeli authorities on Sunday began a roundup of South Sudanese migrants ahead of their deportation, three days after a court ruled that their lives were no longer threatened in their homeland.
"The deportation operation is getting under way. We are starting the job," Interior Minister Eli Yishai told independent television station Channel Two.
"We told the infiltrators from South Sudan to come voluntarily; whoever doesn't, with the Lord's help we shall get them all... they'll be put on a plane," he said.
The channel reported that that eight South Sudanese were taken into custody on Sunday and "would be deported soon."
The Jerusalem Post quoted the immigration authority as saying that a total of 22 people were arrested on Sunday -- eight South Sudanese, three Nigerians, three Ghanaians, two from Ivory Coast, three Sri Lankans and three Romanians.
http://www.france24.com/en/20120610-israel-starts-rounding-africans-deportation
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Posteritatis
(18,807 posts)
Prometheus Bound
(3,489 posts)Ah, so it's God's work.
nanabugg
(2,198 posts)dballance
(5,756 posts)I seemed to have missed the breaking news that a peace agreement had been agreed upon. Did it happen and I just missed it? As recently as May 17th the UN was having to strong arm Sudan and S. Sudan to get back to the table for peace talks.
I agree it is irony that a people who have been so persecuted are sending other people back to a place I'm just not sure is really safe yet.
Marrah_G
(28,581 posts)
Bonobo
(29,257 posts)Those Sudanese are illegal immigrants.
Deporting 22 illegal immigrants is wrong? Why?
Especially if there is a security concern... They are not being detained in secret and tortured like SOME countries do.
cali
(114,904 posts)Countries around the world deport illegal immigrants all the time. Why is this case so deserving of particular outrage?
Odin2005
(53,521 posts)cali
(114,904 posts)illegal immigrants than any other country? Is Hitler laughing at the U.S. from his place in hell? Are the Israelis gassing the Sudanese?
Response to cali (Reply #9)
Bonobo This message was self-deleted by its author.
cali
(114,904 posts)Bonobo
(29,257 posts)Bonobo
(29,257 posts)Can you explain your seemingly cartoonish overreaction?
Spider Jerusalem
(21,786 posts)Or suggested that deporting them is doing God's work? No? Didn't think so.
Relevant international law:
"A person who owing to a well-founded fear of being persecuted for reasons of race, religion, nationality, membership of a particular social group or political opinion, is outside the country of his nationality and is unable or, owing to such fear, is unwilling to avail himself of the protection of that country; or who, not having a nationality and being outside the country of his former habitual residence as a result of such events, is unable or, owing to such fear, is unwilling to return to it.."[5]
The above definition applies to many of the Sudanese and other Africans in Israel; Israeli newspapers even refer to them as "asylum-seekers".
And further:
"The Contracting States shall not impose penalties, on account of their illegal entry or presence, on refugees who, coming directly from a territory where their life or freedom was threatened in the sense of article 1, enter or are present in their territory without authorization, provided they present themselves without delay to the authorities and show good cause for their illegal entry or presence. (Article 31, (1) )
A refugee's right to be protected against forcible return, or refoulement, is set out in the 1951 Convention relating to the Status of Refugees:
"No Contracting State shall expel or return ('refouler') a refugee in any manner whatsoever to the frontiers of territories where his life or freedom would be threatened on account of his race, religion, nationality, membership of a particular social or political opinion" (Article 33(1)).[6]
It is widely accepted that the prohibition of forcible return is part of customary international law. This means that even States that are not party to the 1951 Refugee Convention must respect the principle of non-refoulement.[6] Therefore, States are obligated under the Convention and under customary international law to respect the principle of non-refoulement. If and when this principle is threatened, UNHCR can respond by intervening with relevant authorities, and if it deems necessary, will inform the public.[6]
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_Nations_Convention_Relating_to_the_Status_of_Refugees
This isn't really comparable to deportation of economic migrants from Mexico or Latin America into the US at all.
nanabugg
(2,198 posts)Bonobo
(29,257 posts)Relevant quotes here too.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2012/jun/07/israeli-court-deportation-south-sudan
The court said petitioners had not proven that deportees would face "risk to life or exposure to serious damage", supporting assessments by Israeli diplomats in South Sudan, which declared independence last year after decades of fighting with northern neighbour Sudan.
Most of the approximately 60,000 Africans who have walked into Israel through its porous desert border with Egypt are from Sudan, an overwhelmingly Arab-Muslim nation that does not recognise the Jewish state, and from war-ravaged Eritrea.
Also why do you assume that some or even many Mexican immigrants are not in fear of violence and/or crippling hunger in their own country. Last time I checked Mexico was having lots of problems.
Anyway, 400,000 in one year vs. 22 is still a pretty significant number that you seem quite willing to ignore.
Spider Jerusalem
(21,786 posts)is that an Israeli court decided that the petitioners hadn't proven risk. Which doesn't mean that the risk is nonexistent, and in a country which has been experiencing open civil war and ethnic violence is qualitatively different to even Mexico with rampant drug crime; the nature of the violence in Sudan is such that it would justify refugee status. See here for instance: http://www.globalpost.com/dispatch/news/regions/africa/120117/south-sudan-plagued-ethnic-violence
And again, please, I invite you to point out where any US government official has called refugees and asylum-seekers infiltrators or said deporting them was doing god's work. Or for that matter said it was "part of a war to maintain the ethnic purity of America", which this Israeli interior minister pretty much did say...the exact quote, "to maintain the Zionist and Jewish dream in the land of Israel"; there's no other spin to put on that but straight-up ethnic nationalism.
Bonobo
(29,257 posts)I just want to point out that America is in no position, absolutely NO position to judge when you consider the long wars (that continue) against minorities in the US --and I am talking about legal American citizens. These were illegal immigrants anyway you slice it and they had not applied for political asylum.
22 vs. 400,000 in one year.
As far as I see things, the US beats Israel hands down when it comes to ripping away the lives of minorities. Look at the incarceration stats alone. Not even close.
But I can only laugh at comparisons with nazis for this. It is ridiculous.
Spider Jerusalem
(21,786 posts)Every report I've read says that they surrender themselves to the Israeli military after crossing the border and request asylum. And I'm not even talking about minorities or illegal immigration, I'm talking about obligations to refugees and asylum seekers under international law. I don't even think you have any clue what it is you're actually talking about or what the present subject is. And the fact remains that the Israeli interior minister has referred to asylum-seekers and refugees as "infiltrators" and said deporting them is doing God's work. I can't honestly imagine an American official saying such a thing in an official capacity. There is not really any comparison; I am not sure how you think there can be.
Also, a state premised on the idea of ethnic nationalism and deporting anyone who threatens it? Nah, no valid comparison with Nazis there, is there?
Bonobo
(29,257 posts)And the fact remains that the Israeli interior minister has referred to asylum-seekers and refugees as "infiltrators" and said deporting them is doing God's work. I can't honestly imagine an American official saying such a thing in an official capacity. There is not really any comparison; I am not sure how you think there can be.
http://www.democraticunderground.com/1002795682
Ooooops! There is this.
House Homeland Security Chairman Peter King (R-NY) on Sunday refused to confirm the existence of U.S. drone strikes in other countries, but later insisted that the unmanned flying machines were being used to “carry out the policies of righteousness and goodness.”
Spider Jerusalem
(21,786 posts)Way to confuse the issue and avoid the point.
And a member of congress doesn't speak for the government (what in the US is called "the administration"
; a cabinet minister speaking in his official capacity? Does. This would be like the Secretary of Defense saying what King said.
Mosby
(16,263 posts)Danny Adino Ababa
Published: 06.07.12, 10:18 / Israel News
“First, you must steal or find Saharonim shoes,” James instructed me. “Otherwise, the people at the park will immediately suspect you.”
James is a veteran infiltrator, fully aware of the balance of power in the parallel universe of Levinsky Park, the Sudanese and Eritrean stronghold in southern Tel Aviv. This universe has its own codes of dress, language and behavior, and in order to fit in I had to receive comprehensive instructions. Wearing the right clothes wasn’t enough. For the purpose of the journalistic assignment I faced – posing as a refugee for a week – I had to cut my long hair and shave my beard, my two trademarks in the past seven years. In the State of Levinsky people notice the finest details, and James (pseudonyms are used throughout this story) asserted that I couldn’t have arrived from the desert with my dreadlocks and a well-groomed goatee.
“Ok, but what the hell are Saharonim shoes?” I ask James. Listen,” he replies, “when the infiltrators cross the border and are nabbed by the IDF, all of them – men, women, children, babies – are taken to Saharonim, the new detention center at the Negev. There, they get new shoes, sort of slippers, which they use when they arrive at Levinsky Park. Saharonim shoes are the trademark of every refugee in his first days in the park. If you arrive without them, they’ll suspect you. Be careful. As it is, you don’t look like an ordinary refugee.”
Eventually I met an infiltrator who agreed to sell me his Saharonim shoes for seven shekels. “When you go to sleep, put them under your head; otherwise you won’t find them in the morning,” he said. “You should know that they steal everything; anything that moves.”
http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-4239481,00.html
azurnoir
(45,850 posts)thanks for posting it's worth a read just for that
Marrah_G
(28,581 posts)I find this incredibly infuriating and it disgusts me that we continue to give them huge amounts of money and weapons.
snooper2
(30,151 posts)LOL
tralala
(239 posts)came over and just decided to live on your land?
