BY NICOLE SCHILIT
Johannes (name has been changed) is a twenty five year old refugee from Eritrea who came to Israel four months ago through Sudan and then Egypt. He lives not far from South Tel Aviv Bus Terminal, an expansive Soviet-looking looking building that most people describe as the “white elephant”. The complex boasts a shopping mall that includes 29 escalators and 13 elevators with over 1,000 shops and restaurants. It is the second largest central bus station in the world.
The drive along Allenby Road, the street that takes you from downtown to South Tel Aviv towards the Bus Terminal, allows you to very quickly witness the stark transformation from a predominantly white Israeli neighborhood to an almost exclusively black one. South Tel Aviv, also now referred to as “Little Africa,” is home to more than 30,000 African refugees seeking asylum in Israel. The change in demographic is striking in the Jewish State. The Israeli population now shares its small piece of land sandwiched between Egypt, Jordan, Syria and Lebanon not only with Palestinians, but with asylum seekers from Eritrea, Ethiopia, Darfur and South Sudan. And these new arrivals are not being received with open arms.
Israel has always been and continues to be a fixture in the news due to the contentious politics in the Middle East and its territorial dispute with the Palestinians. Beyond the political conflict, however, Israel is fighting another battle against a visible migration problem that is bringing African asylum seekers to a nation that is persistently claims that it does not have the resources or prosperity to house them on their piece of holy land. Israeli policy makers are struggling to find a way to deal with this problem and keep the potential unrest at a minimum. Refugee advocates, however, believe that policy makers are creating a new crisis, with its plan to pen refugees in a desert camp where they can’t support themselves while refusing to create a procedure that will fairly resolve their asylum claims. Advocates are fighting to protect the refugee’s rights by rallying against the closed facility and urging policy makers to allow the refugees to work in the country.
For the Africans arriving in South Tel Aviv, Israel represents the only opportunity they have to eventually reach the United States, Europe, or Australia. Their journey begins when they leave their war-torn homeland and make their way on foot to Sudan. From Sudan they travel up through Egypt and across the Sinai. If they are lucky they will spend less than one year imprisoned in a detention facility before they attempt to cross the Egyptian border. Many of the refugees will arrive in Israel with fresh bullet wounds, courtesy of the border patrol.
Johannes spent only 15 days in Egypt because he was “very lucky”. The day after he went to Israel a new policy was instated. No one would be able to leave Egypt for Israel now without paying an $8,000 dollar fine imposed by the Egyptian Government. Most of the friends and people he travelled with are still there.
As soon as these African migrants cross the border into Israel, they are no longer considered refugees. Israel has decided that the entire populations of African asylum seekers are in fact infiltrators. According to Prime Minister Prime Benjamin Netanyahu, “the infiltrators conquered Eilat and Arad, and they are conquering Tel Aviv from north to south.” He continues to say that the problem is persisting because Israel has become the only first-world country that people can walk to from Africa. “A stream of refugees threaten to wash away our achievements and harm our existence as a Jewish and democratic state.” The overwhelming negative response of Israelies towards the migrants, according to advocates at Assaf, demonstrates that he has effectively convinced most Israelis to believe the migrants are there to steal jobs from the poor, make Tel Aviv a less safe city, and create misery for the people of Israel.
Policies have changed drastically over the past few months, becoming less accommodating to refugees and instituting more restrictions on their moevment, following immigration policy trends that are also visible in the Western world. The Ministry of Interior has added an explicit statement on the ‘conditional release’ visas of the asylum seekers that states that their visas do not permit their employment in Israel. Asylum seekers have to renew their visas every three months. The new statement on their visas has deterred many Israeli employers from hiring asylum seekers for fear that there will be punitive measures taken against them for doing so. This is very harmful to asylum seekers’ well-being as they are living in Israel without any support and finding menial jobs is their only way to support themselves in this country.
Maya Paley is an American Israeli currently working at ASSAF, (Hebrew acronym for “Organization for Aiding Refugees”), an organization that “simultaneously works to improve the treatment and response towards African refugees.” According to Maya, many Israelis feel that organizations like ASSAF are promoting the deterioration of the Jewish character of the State of Israel by advocating on behalf of the rights of the refugees. She says that many of the refugees have expressed that they do not want to be in Israel and that they never planned on coming here, but circumstances brought them here. They were trying to escape to anywhere in the Western world, primarily to Europe or the US or Australia, but it’s become increasingly difficult to enter Europe through Africa. As a result Israel has become a more attractive option. Most of the refugees Maya works with hope to eventually be able to move to another country where they can undergo a proper procedure to determine their refugee status.
The Israeli government’s solution to the problem is to build a closed refugee camp in the Negev desert to house the “infiltrators”. The detention facility will provide shelter, food, and health services to asylum seekers entering the country. The government says it plans to complete the facility by 8-9 months from now. Maya explains that at this time, they plan on actualizing the statement on the visas stating that asylum seekers cannot work in this country. “Essentially, people will have a place to sleep, but they will be living in the middle of the desert in the south of the country and will not be permitted to work.”
Many have been detained and treated as criminals without ever committing a crime in their respective countries. Many have been tortured, assaulted, raped, and shot, and the detention center in Israel would only serve to criminalize people who have not committed crime, according to Assaf. Maya says that “the main problem with detention in Israel is that because there is no proper Refugee Status Determination procedure and so few people are given refugee status here, asylum seekers can potentially be detained for indefinite periods of time, which is nothing short of inhumane.”
According to Johannes the state has begun a more aggressive approach with the media, bringing increased attention to the “problem” of African migrants through the use of propaganda. More Israelis are speaking out against the refugees and calling them infiltrators because they are frustrated that the asylum seekers are sleeping in the parks near their homes. Maya believes if more people knew the types of experiences the asylum seekers have been through, their opinions might be different.
Johannes says there is no response from the refugee community because they cannot do anything. “Most of the people believe in two things, if we go back will spend 6 or 7 years in prison, torture, or death. We can either live the way we are living here, or resettle somewhere. They have to raise the question internationally and let the other people deal with it.”
While Johannes has participated in two protests, he doesn’t know what’s going to come out of it. No one can work because Israel will not give the refugees work permits. The African community is dependent on sympathetic employers willing to pay them off the books, of which there are few, who will allow them to earn a small income. The general attitude has become one of defeat. People are giving up and losing hope all together. “No matter what you say nothing is going to change because that is the experience we had back at home.”
Little is being publicized about the refugee situation occurring in Israel in news sources outside of the country. The pre-existing tensions and newsworthy issues in the region make it difficult for people to isolate one human rights violation from another in order to address an issue like the one surrounding the asylum seekers in South Tel Aviv.
When asked about his family that is still living in Eritrea Johannes says he hopes they will understand what is going on and won’t come to Israel. His sister arrived in Ethiopia two weeks ago and is now living in Mai Ayni in the north region of the country. I’m told “In Ethiopia one things is guaranteed, that you will not have to go back to Eritrea.”