Never Again

After WWII we said never again. Obviously, we haven't done well in stopping genocide.

The killings and rapes have been going in Darfur for over three years now.

If you think of a country that would welcome refugees trying to escape Darfur the immediate answer is Israel. You would be wrong.

Standing behind bars and begging to tell of families murdered and homes destroyed, the Sudanese in Maasiyahu Prison are confronting their Israeli jailers with a quandary that taps deep into the trauma of the Holocaust.

The Sudanese, some 220 men and women, say they fled massacres and religious persecution in the war-torn Darfur region and in southern Sudan. But they are not eligible for asylum here because Israel considers their country, an Arab League member, to be an "enemy state."

The United Nations is documenting their stories and trying with Israeli help to find them refuge in a third country. In the meantime, their imprisonment has angered some Israelis, including the director of Yad Vashem, the national Holocaust memorial. They say the Jews, having suffered genocide, have a moral duty to help the Sudanese.

I agree with Mr. Vashem. We all have a moral duty to help the Sudanese. Israel loses all credibility if they punish the victims of genocide because they don't like the country they're from. Guess what? The victims aren't crazy about the government of Sudan, either.

You cannot say Never Again and then jail victims of genocide.

You can email the government of Israel to voice your displeasure at feedback@mfa.gov.il.

Update.

I received an email back from the government of Israel.

Dear Ms. Reed,

Thank you for your query.

Please don't be quick to jump to conclusions about Israel's treatment of Sudanese refugees, neither based on comparisons with the Yishuv's absorption of survivors of the Holocaust, nor the nascent State of Israel's absorption of nearly a million Jewish refugees from Arab countries, nor Israel's absorption of over a million immigrants from the former Soviet Union, nor some 100,000 Ethiopian Jews, nor even over 300 non-Jewish Vietnamese refugees, the so-called "boat people."

Each group found a home in Israel – the Vietnamese were even granted immediate citizenship – in accordance with the circumstances of their need and the conditions in Israel upon their arrival.

Not a single individual of the groups mentioned above infiltrated Israel from a hostile territory during a period of armed conflict marked by suicide terrorism – but this is exactly how the Darfur refugees arrived and Israel has stated quite frankly that it took us by surprise.

The fact that they were not welcomed with open arms after undergoing so much suffering, but were treated more militarily and/or bureaucratically than they deserved, is truly unfortunate. What is fortunate for them, however, is that numerous groups of Israelis – officially and otherwise – have taken their plight all the way to the High Court of Justice, the Supreme Court's highest administrative body, which has already ruled against the state's treatment of the Darfur refugees.

I have enclosed two articles below which may give you a more balanced picture of the situation than you are used to being bombarded with. The main idea is that Israel, more than just about any country you can think of, has a superlative record with regard to refugees under any circumstances and certainly has nothing to be ashamed of – except perhaps for erring on the side of caution during a time of national danger.

Please keep the faith,

Ilan Chaim

Information and Internet Department
Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Jerusalem

I can admit that perhaps I jumped to conclusions. We'll see how this plays out. I certainly appreciate how quickly they got back to me.