Israeli sympathy for refugees

NECHEMIA MEYERS

It is doubtful whether anyone in Europe suffered a sleepless night last week when some 50 Africans were drowned after the rickety boat carrying them to Spain's Canary Islands sunk in the Atlantic. Thousands of other Africans have suffered a similar fate in recent years, and it can safely be predicted that thousands more will drown in the future, because masses of them are willing to risk their lives in an attempt to reach Europe and eventually enjoy a European living standard.

Europeans don't want them and, with some exceptions, it appears they would be only too pleased if migrants perish in their attempt to escape African poverty.
Now Israelis are faced with a similar refugee problem, but some, at least, are reacting in a completely different manner. They are feeling guilty about not doing more for the beleaguered Africans. "How can we turn away refugees from Darfur," they are asking themselves, "when our own families were refused refuge 65 years ago and thus ended up in Auschwitz, rather than New York, Toronto or Melbourne?"

Many Israeli families are not just talking that way, but also doing something to alleviate the situation. They are taking Sudanese into their homes. The resulting photographs of cute little black children running about well-appointed upper middle class Israeli homes are heartwarming.

But these ad hoc adoptions are no solution to the problem. Either the refugees will be deported or special accommodations will have to be built for them. And unless other Africans are deterred by a policy of deportation, we'll soon have not just the 3,000 that are here today, but 30,000 or 300,000. This is quite apart from the tens of thousands of black Jews from Ethiopia, who have plenty of their own absorption problems.

It is hard to determine how involved Islamist Arabs are in the influx of Africans into Israel. They are certainly responsible for the devastation, killing and rape that drove so many Christians out of Sudan. Indeed, Islamists make no secret of the fact that they would like to expel all Christians from Africa, across the Sinai to Israel or elsewhere. Egyptian President Mubarak has promised Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert to take back those Sudanese who Israel can prove came from Sinai. Meanwhile there are no deportations and lots of illegal migrants crossing the borders every night.

Israel's handling of the African infiltrators also provides grist for the Arab propaganda mill. Many are being temporarily housed in a camp right next to Ketziot, which served for many years as a prison for terrorists. The camp, in contrast to the prison, will allow families to live together.

While not overjoyed by Ketziot, the Sudanese much prefer it to the probable alternative. That would be deportation to Egypt and soon afterwards, deportation to Sudan. Once in their homeland, their life expectancy would be very short indeed.

Nechemia Meyers is a freelance writer living in Rehovot, Israel.

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