Israel Says It Will Turn Away Darfur Refugees

August 19, 2007
Israel Says It Will Turn Away Darfur Refugees
By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS

Filed at 7:58 a.m. ET

JERUSALEM (AP) -- Israel said Sunday it would expel refugees from Sudan's wartorn Darfur region, touching off hot debate over whether the Jewish state, founded after the Nazi genocide, has a duty to take in people fleeing persecution.

Israel has been grappling for months with how to deal with a swelling flow of Africans, including some from Darfur, who have crossed its porous southern border with Egypt's Sinai desert. Overnight, Israel returned 48 Africans to Egypt.

Israeli government spokesman David Baker said he did not know if any were from Darfur, but that Darfurians would not be immune from Israel's ban on unauthorized migrants.

''The policy of returning back anyone who enters Israel illegally will pertain to everyone, including those from Darfur,'' he said.

Egyptian police said Darfurians were among the 48 -- and would be expelled from Egypt to Sudan.

The arrival of Darfur refugees in Israel, a country that grew out of the Nazi Holocaust of 6 million Jews, has hit a raw nerve. Human rights groups and high-profile figures have appealed to the Israeli government to give them a home.

Though the case of the Darfur refugees is unusual -- Israel is not a common destination for modern-day refugees -- the late Prime Minister Menachem Begin set a precedent in 1977 when he offered asylum to nearly 400 Vietnamese boat people.

That the refugees are from Sudan further complicates matters, 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.

The decision to turn back Darfurians contradicts Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert's pledge earlier this summer to absorb them.

Fighting between pro-government militias and rebels in the Western Sudanese region of Darfur has killed more than 200,000 people and displaced 2.5 million since February 2003.

Eytan Schwartz, an advocate for Darfur refugees in Israel, said about 400 have entered Israel in recent years. Baker said they would be allowed to live in Israel, and that the ban applied to new arrivals.

Schwartz objected to any ban. ''The state of Israel has to show compassion for refugees after the Jewish people was subject to persecution throughout its history,'' he said.

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.

An Israeli government official said Egypt has agreed to treat the Darfur refugees well, but acknowledged it might send them back to Sudan. The official spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to discuss the matter with the press.

Israel estimates that 2,800 people have entered the country illegally through Sinai in recent years. Nearly all are from Africa, including 1,160 from Sudan, and many spent months or years in Egypt before entering Israel.

The number shot up in the past two months, apparently as word spread of job opportunities in Israel. As many as 50 people arrived each day in June, according to the U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees.

Harsh threats to expel them have clashed with humanitarian sentiments inspired by the memory of Jews vainly seeking sanctuary from the Nazis.

Israel recently announced it had reached an understanding with Egypt to take back many of the refugees and that they would be treated well. But Egypt has denied any obligation to take them back, and it was unclear what fate expelled Africans would face once returned to Egypt.

Many Sudanese find life difficult in Egypt, a country that struggles to provide jobs and social services for a growing refugee population. Egyptian riot police violently cleared a refugee encampment in central Cairo in 2005, killing nearly 30 people.

Israel has often urged Egypt to step up its surveillance of the border to prevent the illegal flow of goods and people. Egypt has increased its efforts recently, with almost daily reports of African refugees arrested by authorities 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 report.

NYTimes