Israel Matzav

NPR blasts Israel again

In a segment to be broadcast at 9:00am on Thursday, the United States' taxpayer-funded National Public Radio will blast Israel for attempting to stop illegal immigration from African countries.

Israel, however, is far from laying down the welcome mat.

Sigal Rosen is an organizer at the Hotline for Migrant Workers, an advocacy group for refugees, in Tel Aviv. She says that though Israel signed the Geneva Convention relating to refugees, it regularly violates it.

"During the last years, Israel is sending a very clear message to all asylum seekers: Beware. We are not interested in your presence here. We will do whatever is in our power to prevent you from being here, even if the price is violating our legal commitments," Rosen says.

...

On Nov. 22, the same day that work began on the fence along the Egyptian border, Yishai presented his four-part plan to make Israel a less desirable locale for refugees.

In addition to the fence, Israel is building a detention center that will operate as a yet undefined "open facility" for any would-be refugee who decides to remain in Israel.

The third step in Yishai's plan is to punish any employer who hires African migrants or supports their employment.

The last step is the repatriation of refugees who are already in Israel. Israel took that step for the first time — last week — when it removed 150 southern Sudanese who agreed to leave voluntarily in exchange for some pocket money and a flight home in time to vote in the upcoming referendum on the region's independence.

Olivier, however, questions just how voluntary their removal was.

"They've been pushed in the corner. They've been put in the situation where that one was the only solution for them," he says.

At the Hotline for Migrant Workers, Rosen says she knows many more who would consider leaving Israel if they were given a similar deal. Most of them, she says, have become fed up.

Every Western country faces the issue of what to do about illegal immigration. Israel is no different than any other country in this respect - including the United States. We have every right to control who enters our country and how long they stay. Of course, given that the Obama administration backs Mexico challenging Arizona's immigration law, that position is not likely to get a whole lot of sympathy in Washington or on NPR. But that shouldn't stop us from doing what needs to be done to protect the Jewish majority in the World's only Jewish country. In fact, I would be in favor of making the same offer to the 'Palestinians' that was made to those illegal immigrants.

Labels: Egyptian border fence, illegal immigration

posted by Carl in Jerusalem @ 3:26 PM