Nadene Goldfoot
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Even though the NY Times has spent their latest comments bashing Israel, there have been people flooding into this tiny 8,000 square mile country of Israel fleeing from their war torn African nations such as the Eritrea and Sudan. Nobody bothered to tell them that Israel was probably ready to collapse or their chances of survival was worse than all the other 22 neighbor states of Israel. Why didn't they seek refuge in Egypt?
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They knew Israel was a country of freedom and democracy and snuck into the country starting in the middle 2000's. They came as undocumented workers and entered illegally through the fenced border between Israel and Egypt. 26,635 came in 2010. By 2012 the number was 55,000. For 30 years the Eritreans had fought for their independence from Ethiopia from 1961 to 1991. There had been war between Eritrea and Ethiopia from May 1998 to June 2000. Over 150,000 Eritreans had been killed. 69% of Eritreans are Sunni Muslims.
Eritrea, a country on the Red Sea with ancient connections to Egypt, has about a 6 million population. They belong to the African Union, UN, IGAD and have observer status in the Arab League. A neighbor state is Sudan which has 43,939,598 people of which 70% are Sunni Muslims.
"Many of the undocumented workers seek an asylum status under the Convention Relating to the Status of Refugees of the United Nations. Only a fraction of all the undocumented workers is actually eligible for this status. However, many of them, mostly citizens of Eritrea and Sudan, cannot be forcibly deported from Israel. The Eritrea citizens (who, since 2009, form the majority of the undocumented workers in Israel) cannot be deported due to the opinion of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees that Eritrea has a difficult internal situation and a forced recruitment and therefore the Eritrean immigrants are defined as a "temporary humanitarian protection group". Despite the fact that a similar opinion does not exist in relation to citizens of Sudan, Israel does not deport them back to Egypt due to a real fear for their fate." (Wikipedia)
Since the onset of the conflict in 2003, an estimated 400,000 ethnic Africans have been killed, over 3,200 African villages have been destroyed, and 2.4 million people have been displaced. There are also over four million Sudanese reliant on humanitarian aid.
Israel passed a law last year that allowed police to jail refugees and undocumented migrants for as long as 3 years without a trial in the attempt to crack down on this flood of illegals. However, Israel's 9 Judges in the Supreme Court tossed this law out on Monday because it violated human rights. There are about 2,000 that are presently being held in detention facilities. In fact, this law was violating Israel's own laws. Those that had been for it pointed out that it had quickly reduced the number of refugees and migrants entering Israel through the Sinai Peninsula in Egypt. There had only been 34 who entered in 2013 compared with 9,570 in 2012.
When African refugees first came into Israel, they were unemployed and turned the Tel Aviv beach areas into high crime spots. The teenagers formed gangs and stole the belongings of bathers for starters. This is no doubt how many wound up in jails.
This year Israel began deporting Eritrean refugees from the jails back to their homeland. They really would rather stay in jail instead of returning. Israel had become the home to one of the largest Eritrean communities in the world.
The UNHCR (UN Refugee Agency) has their hands full of all the African wars going on that are causing refugee problems. "UNHCR operations in the sub-region have seen a significant increase in their financial requirements over the last five years, mainly due to a rise in the number of emergency refugee situations, including the Somali influx and the surge in the number of Sudanese crossing into Ethiopia and South Sudan. UNHCR's budgetary requirements to protect and assist people of concern in the East and Horn of Africa region in 2013 will amount to about USD 1.13 billion." "The biggest operation in the region remained the response to the Somali emergency, followed closely by the Sudanese refugee situation."
Sharon Harel is the assistant protection officer for the UNHCR in Tel Aviv, She explained that 90% of the Eritreans are men between age 22-40 who are fleeing indefinite compulsory military duty in their country. 8,5000 refugees come from Eritrea and between 5,000 to 6,000 are from Sudan. They had to face much danger to get to Israel.
Israel is doing the right thing, brought about by their own democratic system even though it is causing them greater problems. They 'll work it out. The point is that this is a Jewish state and Judaism is based on laws of morality. That's what it's all about; doing the righteous thing which is the moral thing.
The NY Times, however, did not do the right thing in their Sunday criticism of Israel when they could have zeroed in on the hot spots in the Middle East such as Syria, or the fate of Christians in the Muslim Middle East, Turkey, Iran, Saudi Arabia or Iraq. Instead their Sunday Review story was about the 2-state solution between Israelis and Palestinians. The parties involved have given themselves 9 months to talk, yet Israel is under a daily threat of chemical attacks from Syria and atomic bombings from Iran who is working overtime to create their dastardly weapons of destruction. Well, folks, this is how newspapers go under, which many are doing right now. Even the Oregonian has to pull back and cannot publish a newspaper daily starting next month.
It is a sad state of affairs when a major newspaper thinks that people will only read their paper if they join the crowd and bash Israel, or that the name "Israel" is something people will read about-if it is criticism. Most people can't even find "Syria" on the map or have no interest in what happens there or how many are killed by chemical warfare, words alien to them.
Maybe newspapers need to revive the Newsboy who stood on the corner yelling, "Extra, extra, read all about it! ....1,000 children die in agonizing death spasms from chemical Sarin gas attack in Syria!"
Reference: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eritrea
http://www.jpost.com/Israel/UNHCR-Eritreans-by-far-largest-refugee-group-in-Israel
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Illegal_immigration_from_Africa_to_Israel
Oregonian Newspaper 9/17/13 page A6, Israel voids law on holding refugees, Los Angeles Times
http://www.english.rfi.fr/middle-east/20130401-extraordinary-eritreans-support-centre-eritreans-israel
http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-4430962,00.html
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ex6lB86dxK8
http://www.populstat.info/Africa/eritreag.htm
http://www.nationmaster.com/country/er-eritrea/rel-religion
http://www.haaretz.com/news/national/israel-police-unemployed-african-refugees-turning-tel-aviv-beaches-into-high-crime-spots-1.427634
http://www.unhcr.org/cgi-bin/texis/vtx/home
Even though the NY Times has spent their latest comments bashing Israel, there have been people flooding into this tiny 8,000 square mile country of Israel fleeing from their war torn African nations such as the Eritrea and Sudan. Nobody bothered to tell them that Israel was probably ready to collapse or their chances of survival was worse than all the other 22 neighbor states of Israel. Why didn't they seek refuge in Egypt?
They knew Israel was a country of freedom and democracy and snuck into the country starting in the middle 2000's. They came as undocumented workers and entered illegally through the fenced border between Israel and Egypt. 26,635 came in 2010. By 2012 the number was 55,000. For 30 years the Eritreans had fought for their independence from Ethiopia from 1961 to 1991. There had been war between Eritrea and Ethiopia from May 1998 to June 2000. Over 150,000 Eritreans had been killed. 69% of Eritreans are Sunni Muslims.
Eritrea, a country on the Red Sea with ancient connections to Egypt, has about a 6 million population. They belong to the African Union, UN, IGAD and have observer status in the Arab League. A neighbor state is Sudan which has 43,939,598 people of which 70% are Sunni Muslims.
"Many of the undocumented workers seek an asylum status under the Convention Relating to the Status of Refugees of the United Nations. Only a fraction of all the undocumented workers is actually eligible for this status. However, many of them, mostly citizens of Eritrea and Sudan, cannot be forcibly deported from Israel. The Eritrea citizens (who, since 2009, form the majority of the undocumented workers in Israel) cannot be deported due to the opinion of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees that Eritrea has a difficult internal situation and a forced recruitment and therefore the Eritrean immigrants are defined as a "temporary humanitarian protection group". Despite the fact that a similar opinion does not exist in relation to citizens of Sudan, Israel does not deport them back to Egypt due to a real fear for their fate." (Wikipedia)
Since the onset of the conflict in 2003, an estimated 400,000 ethnic Africans have been killed, over 3,200 African villages have been destroyed, and 2.4 million people have been displaced. There are also over four million Sudanese reliant on humanitarian aid.
Israel passed a law last year that allowed police to jail refugees and undocumented migrants for as long as 3 years without a trial in the attempt to crack down on this flood of illegals. However, Israel's 9 Judges in the Supreme Court tossed this law out on Monday because it violated human rights. There are about 2,000 that are presently being held in detention facilities. In fact, this law was violating Israel's own laws. Those that had been for it pointed out that it had quickly reduced the number of refugees and migrants entering Israel through the Sinai Peninsula in Egypt. There had only been 34 who entered in 2013 compared with 9,570 in 2012.
When African refugees first came into Israel, they were unemployed and turned the Tel Aviv beach areas into high crime spots. The teenagers formed gangs and stole the belongings of bathers for starters. This is no doubt how many wound up in jails.
This year Israel began deporting Eritrean refugees from the jails back to their homeland. They really would rather stay in jail instead of returning. Israel had become the home to one of the largest Eritrean communities in the world.
The UNHCR (UN Refugee Agency) has their hands full of all the African wars going on that are causing refugee problems. "UNHCR operations in the sub-region have seen a significant increase in their financial requirements over the last five years, mainly due to a rise in the number of emergency refugee situations, including the Somali influx and the surge in the number of Sudanese crossing into Ethiopia and South Sudan. UNHCR's budgetary requirements to protect and assist people of concern in the East and Horn of Africa region in 2013 will amount to about USD 1.13 billion." "The biggest operation in the region remained the response to the Somali emergency, followed closely by the Sudanese refugee situation."
Sharon Harel is the assistant protection officer for the UNHCR in Tel Aviv, She explained that 90% of the Eritreans are men between age 22-40 who are fleeing indefinite compulsory military duty in their country. 8,5000 refugees come from Eritrea and between 5,000 to 6,000 are from Sudan. They had to face much danger to get to Israel.
Israel is doing the right thing, brought about by their own democratic system even though it is causing them greater problems. They 'll work it out. The point is that this is a Jewish state and Judaism is based on laws of morality. That's what it's all about; doing the righteous thing which is the moral thing.
The NY Times, however, did not do the right thing in their Sunday criticism of Israel when they could have zeroed in on the hot spots in the Middle East such as Syria, or the fate of Christians in the Muslim Middle East, Turkey, Iran, Saudi Arabia or Iraq. Instead their Sunday Review story was about the 2-state solution between Israelis and Palestinians. The parties involved have given themselves 9 months to talk, yet Israel is under a daily threat of chemical attacks from Syria and atomic bombings from Iran who is working overtime to create their dastardly weapons of destruction. Well, folks, this is how newspapers go under, which many are doing right now. Even the Oregonian has to pull back and cannot publish a newspaper daily starting next month.
It is a sad state of affairs when a major newspaper thinks that people will only read their paper if they join the crowd and bash Israel, or that the name "Israel" is something people will read about-if it is criticism. Most people can't even find "Syria" on the map or have no interest in what happens there or how many are killed by chemical warfare, words alien to them.
Maybe newspapers need to revive the Newsboy who stood on the corner yelling, "Extra, extra, read all about it! ....1,000 children die in agonizing death spasms from chemical Sarin gas attack in Syria!"
Reference: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eritrea
http://www.jpost.com/Israel/UNHCR-Eritreans-by-far-largest-refugee-group-in-Israel
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Illegal_immigration_from_Africa_to_Israel
Oregonian Newspaper 9/17/13 page A6, Israel voids law on holding refugees, Los Angeles Times
http://www.english.rfi.fr/middle-east/20130401-extraordinary-eritreans-support-centre-eritreans-israel
http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-4430962,00.html
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ex6lB86dxK8
http://www.populstat.info/Africa/eritreag.htm
http://www.nationmaster.com/country/er-eritrea/rel-religion
http://www.haaretz.com/news/national/israel-police-unemployed-african-refugees-turning-tel-aviv-beaches-into-high-crime-spots-1.427634
http://www.unhcr.org/cgi-bin/texis/vtx/home
Great post Nadene. I enjoy your posts a lot. My family has Ashkanezi DNA; we had been told we were Shephardic Jews...maybe we are, but...
ReplyDeleteRevis Leonard
Thanks, Simply Lokal. I appreciate your comment. You could have both Sephardic and Ashkenazi connections. If you have Ashkenazi DNA, that's a sure thing right there. Hope you're working on your genealogy. It's an amazing hobby which I love. It's a great way to get into our history.
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