I
am in the cinemateque, Tel Aviv, listening to refugees from Darfur, Sudan, talk about their escape from genocide. Escape from genocide to the jails
of Israel, that is, where, over the last two years, more than 200 Sudanese who gave themselves up to the authorities after crossing the
Egyptian border have been held.
A government-backed militia in Sudan has, to date, murdered an estimated 400,000
African Muslims. A civil war, which began in 1983 and continues today,
has resulted in the deaths of two million people and the displacement of
millions more from the region.
‘Yassim’
(we are asked not to report any names) says: ‘I made it to Egypt from Sudan. I
was living in Cairo but it was not safe there – many people were deported back
to Sudan. I wanted to come to Israel.
‘I
knew about Israel from TV – that there was a conflict between Israel and
the Arabs – so I thought they would understand our problem. But it’s
not easy to get to Israel. You have to ask the Bedouin to help you cross the
desert. They want money – and when you give them money, they ask you for more.
But I could not return to Sudan. I chose danger because I had no choice. Behind
me was hell; in front, my destiny was blank.
‘When
I came to Israel I was jailed for a year and a half. The Israeli people treated
us well – better than before. I told them that I had escaped from genocide in
Darfur in Sudan.
‘In
my village, a group of men came on horseback and started burning everything. My
sister and I started to run away, but she didn’t run fast enough, and they shot
her in the head. My sister lay dying in front of me but I had to leave her. I
ran into the mountains to my uncle’s village. Then they came to my uncle and
shot him and another family member in front of me. There is no life without
family so I moved to a city nearby.
‘I
had no money, no friend, no shelter. I lived in the city alone, but it was not
safe there. They were arresting people from Darfur. Eventually I made it
through to the desert in Egypt.’
Yonatan,
a lawyer for the Sudanese, tells us that so far, only
50 have been released from prison. Israel claims that they are a threat to national
security because Sudan is a terrorist-sponsoring state. An Israeli law allows the detention without judicial review of anyone who ‘infiltrates’ Israel, and Israel is using this to detain migrant workers. Lawyers for the
Sudanese filed a petition on their behalf, challenging their detention under this law. The State
continued to say that no one should be released, producing a report by
Shabak, the Israeli secret service, claiming that any person from Sudan is a
threat to national security.
But
the tribunal rejected the State’s claim. Before the Sudanese could be released,
CARD (committee for the advancement of the refugees from Darfur, a group of
human rights organisations) had to find kibbutzim willing to take them, which is why, so far, only 50 are free.
But, even after their release, the Sudanese do not have refugee status. Israel hopes that another country will take them. No other country is willing to take them. In refusing refugee status on the basis that the Sudanese are
nationals of an enemy state, Israel is in breach of the Geneva Refugee
Convention. When the convention was agreed, in 1951, Israel argued for the inclusion of a provision that no one could be refused refugee status on the basis that s/he was the national of an enemy state –
because of the German Jews refused asylum during the Second World War on this basis.
On
his release of four Sudanese men, Judge Elad Azar said: ‘I believe that the
situation of these four refugees is not qualitatively different from the fate
of tens of thousands of German Jews who felt their very souls were threatened
when they fled from the Nazi regime and arrived in England seeking refuge.
These refugees were first treated as enemies and were put in custody, but
the British authorities realised pretty soon the absurd and the moral injustice and
changed their attitude in favour of the refugees of the Nazi regime.’
Sudanese
women and children are not jailed upon arrival in Israel – only the men. Many of the women live in a shelter, Kanfei Shahar, run by Rita.
Affaf, one of the women living in the shelter, gets up to thank Rita for her work: ‘I can’t speak English, only Arabic,’ she
says via a translator. ‘I want to thank this beautiful mother, Rita. You
can’t imagine how she takes care of us and our husbands in jail. No one of the
government of Sudan will do what this lady did for us. Over there they kill
children and pregnant women. We thank her from the bottom of our heart and
every Sudanese should thank her.’
Affaf
throws her arms around Rita, who blushes deeply and says: ‘Arab
and Jewish and Christian women all work together in the shelter. We must not turn our back on anyone who needs what we can give them in
Israel.’
Or, as Israel's hotline for migrant workers puts it: You shall not
wrong a stranger or oppress him, for you were strangers in the land of Egypt
(Exodus 22:20)