Jewish Groups To Netanyahu: Don’t Deport African Asylum Seekers
African asylum-seekers protest outside Israel’s Holot detention center in the Negev, February 2014 Image by Getty Images
By Nathan Guttman January 16, 2018
In a rare rebuke of Israeli government policy, two major Jewish American organizations are publicly expressing their concern over a plan to deport thousands of African asylum seekers.
״As American Jews, one of our greatest concerns is the well-being and security of Israel; we want to see it prosper and overcome all of the challenges its precarious location imposes on it,” the groups state in a letter to Prime Minister Netanyahu. “We also care about our shared Jewish values and refugee heritage — a very human concern that reaches across borders and distances—and unifies us as a people.”
The Israeli government recently approved a plan to force African migrants, mainly from Eritrea and Sudan, to leave and resettle in third countries in Africa, or stay and face incarceration in an open detention center in the Negev desert. Human rights groups warned that asylum seekers who had agreed to leave in the past faced violence and dangers.
“We therefore strongly urge the Israeli government to refrain from implementing this plan,” ADL and HIAS conclude their letter to Netanyahu. “Addressing this issue in a humane and responsible manner remains no easy task, but it is the Jewish and ethical thing to do.”
Contact Nathan Guttman at guttman@forward.com or on Twitter @nathanguttman
A message from our CEO & publisher Rachel Fishman Feddersen
I hope you appreciated this article. Before you go, I’d like to ask you to please support the Forward’s award-winning, nonprofit journalism during this critical time.
We’ve set a goal to raise $260,000 by December 31. That’s an ambitious goal, but one that will give us the resources we need to invest in the high quality news, opinion, analysis and cultural coverage that isn’t available anywhere else.
If you feel inspired to make an impact, now is the time to give something back. Join us as a member at your most generous level.
— Rachel Fishman Feddersen, Publisher and CEO
