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Tuesday, June 19, 2012

International Black Africans in Israel

Posted by Charles Mudede on Tue, Jun 19, 2012 at 9:10 AM

Some of the complexities of the current immigration crisis in Israel is captured in this short NYT piece. For those who are wondering how some of the black Africans ended up in this already unstable part of the world:

Some immigrants tell harrowing tales of cruelty by Bedouin smugglers in Sinai. They recounted how, after dashing across the border, at risk of being shot by Egyptian officers, they sought out the Israeli border patrols. The soldiers who picked them up, they said, told them they were safe and welcomed them to Israel.

The immigrants were then taken to Saharonim, a prison near the border, and registered. Israel carried out no background checks to sort the genuine asylum seekers from opportunists or fugitives. Most, mainly Eritreans and Sudanese, were released after a few days under the collective protection provision. They were put on buses and dropped off at Levinsky Park or other locations, ending up in a kind of limbo.

So much trouble in the world.

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While news reports are focused on Israel's rejection of black Africans, they generally omit the fact that Israel has taken in a hundred thousand black Ethiopian and Sudanese Jews already. Look up "Operation Moses". These people were either expelled from their home countries (for the crime of being Jewish) or driven out by war and famine. These people have been subjected to very low levels of racism (though certainly not zero) within Israeli society compared to other black Africans in Western Europe or the United States, and, of course, their economic opportunities are infinitely greater in Israel than they ever would have been in the hellholes they came from.

While the focus on Israel is always on the Palestinian "refugees", most of whom voluntarily left rather than endure the shame of having Jewish neighbors, and whom have still not been integrated in even the slightest way in their refugee states such as Jordan, Israel has in general been unstinting in its welcome of Jewish refugees from around the world, as those people have been hounded out of their home countries. Go try and find a Jew in Afghanistan or Iraq today -- countries which used to have thriving Jewish communities once upon a time.

Posted by Fnarf

on June 19, 2012 at 10:37 AM

Thank you, Fnarf, for writing that comment to start this thread. The last time Mudede posted about this particular situation in Israel, it quickly devolved into comparisons of Israelis to Nazis and insinuations that Israel is an illegitimate state, without a valid claim to nationhood. Israel can certainly be criticized, but the legitimate points are so often drowned out by a torrential antisemitic demonisation.

Posted by samktg on June 19, 2012 at 11:19 AM

@1 Fnarf,
You have a point. I, too recall "Operation Moses" from awhile ago.

Posted by lark on June 19, 2012 at 11:27 AM

@1, the operation has not been so rosy.

@2, so i'm antisemitic now? wow.

Posted by Charles Mudede on June 19, 2012 at 11:32 AM

@Mudede, I did not call you an antisemite. I called many of the people commenting on that thread antisemites.

Posted by samktg on June 19, 2012 at 11:37 AM

I wouldn't even call many of the people commenting on that thread antisemites, though many said antisemitic things. I think many of them were simply ignorant of the implications of their comments (some knew full well what they were saying, however).

Posted by samktg on June 19, 2012 at 11:46 AM

@4, the forced rescue of thousands of people is never "rosy". It was a hell of a lot more rosy than watching what would have happened to the Ethiopian Jews if they'd stayed home, that's for damn sure. Mengistu was not a humanitarian.

Posted by Fnarf

on June 19, 2012 at 12:15 PM

@2: The majority of people who criticize Israel do so not because it is a Jewish state, but because it has been engaging in an illegal occupation and destruction of another people for many years now.

I am not claiming they have no right to a state, but they do not have the right to murder/run people off their lands, plop down an armed settlement and then claim "ours." Nor should they have a right to decide on the fate of the Palestinian people.

Posted by Theodore Gorath on June 19, 2012 at 12:54 PM

@8, The majority of people who criticize Israel demonize Israelis, attempt to delegitimize Israeli nationhood, and hold Israel to a standard not typically applied to other countries as guilty of human rights violations as they are. If you do not think this is how Israel is commonly treated by its critics, you simply do not read enough. The rhetoric around Israel is so steeped in the stuff, that many people don't even realize they are perpetuating antisemitism when they speak or write. It is right to be critical of the Israeli government, but please take care that you don't compare Israeli Jews to Nazis, or suggest Israel has no claim to nationhood, or forget that Israel's neighbors have and continue to treat Palestinians pretty egregiously too - while maintaining a policy of "the Jews must be pushed into the sea."

Posted by samktg on June 19, 2012 at 1:30 PM

@4 Perhaps the problems have to do with the Africans. I've noticed that anywhere Africans settle and have problems it is never their fault. Try transporting thousands of Russian Jews to Zimbabwe then demand that the black Africans "assimilate them" and call them anti-semetic and racist anytime the Russian Jews fail to behave well or do not feel "respected". The reality is that there are 47 countries in Africa and if the Africans thought they'd be better treated there they would still be there. Why are they even travelling accoss Egypt to Isreal? There are hundreds of Africans killed regularly in xenophobic (South Africa) and religious (Nigeria, Somalia) hate crimes on a constant basis all over Africa. Yet if one white Jew in Isreal hits a black African immigrant it is front page news and we are told Isreal is like Nazi Germany. Which country in Africa has a better human rights record towards Africans than Isreal?

Posted by Where are Africans not complaining about ill treatment? on June 19, 2012 at 2:28 PM

@4 If I remember correctly you insinuated that Isrealis had not learned from the past due to some derogatory speech and hate crimes towards Africans. I think that is a pretty obnoxious statement and ironic considering the hate crimes and attitudes blacks in America have perpetrated towards Jews and Asians for 50 years is as bad as what whites did to them. Also look at the Crown Heights pogrom and anti-Asian hate crimes all over the US. 4 decades of Asian students being harrassed in Philly, the targetting of Korean stores all over this country during the Rodeny King riots, Al Sharptons Korean boycott in NYC. Recently Democratic Marion Barry said during his reelection speech that "dirty Asians needed to go" from his district. How is that any less hateful that the KKK? And he received loud applause when he said it too.
Jerimiah Wright didn't learn from the past when he told a reporter said to his granddaughter "the Jews won't let me talk to Obama." I don't think he liked it when people told their grandchildren that blacks were violent and stupid.

Posted by Yankel Rosenbaum on June 19, 2012 at 2:40 PM